Alpha Galaxy Patrol: Call To Action!
by FlameAmigo619
Summary: (Set a universe with Sonic style characters.) In Payton City, two Agents protect the city as members of an elite space police (before it went intergalactic) against a cyber terrorist who threatens to tear apart the city. (This is a prequel to Season 1, showing how the team comes together, I hope that you enjoy it with my new co-writer! Reviews are highly appreciated.)
1. Tremors

**ALPHA GALAXY PATROL: CALL TO ACTION  
EPISODE 1: TREMORS  
WRITTEN BY ZAK KAYES AND KATHRINE HAWKINS**

**GANTHIO, KUNDARIAN NEBULA  
PAYTON CITY HIGHWAY I-57  
MARCH, 21ST, 30XS  
8:34 AM**

_**Ganthio: a once luscious world of forests and jungles half at its former glory; the other half filled with busting, high-tech utopias. Many smaller cities cover the terraformed part of Ganthio, each connected with high speed train systems to bring its citizens to and from the various towns. There is something for everyone on Ganthio, a planet that has successfully achieved near-planet wide peace. However, like any planet, danger lurks just around the corner and unfortunately, it isn't far behind...**_

Tearing around the corner, a silver SUV weaved its way through the rush hour traffic. Two german-shepherd like aliens kept the car going at a swift 60 MPH. In the trunk were bags filled with money, marked with the letters PCNB. One of the aliens leaned his body out the window and aimed his blaster at the pursuing fleet of police cars chasing them. If one were to guess, these were two criminals looking for a quick buck. Sirens and blaster fire filled the air as the chase alerted drivers on the highway to get out of the way, lest they become casualties. (A nicer way of saying roadkill, in this case.)

"Come on man, we gotta lose these guys!" yelled one of the aliens, trying to shoot at the police cars in the front.

As the crooks sped past, a pair of motorcycle driver came up from a higher level and joined the pursuit. They watched from the top level as they matched their speed with the robbers. The leader of the two, a large muscular wolf, turned to call to his partner, a slender vixen with long purple hair.

"Gemini! Take the exit down to the lower level and sweep around them! Buy me some time!"

She nodded and turned off the highway as directed, swerving around at high speed and coming out in front of them, surprising the robber. The wolf, named Dakoda, meanwhile decided to be a little more bold and ramp off the highway directly, landing on one of the eighteen wheelers and riding his way down to get behind the robbers.

"Show off." muttered Gemini.

"SHIT!" yelled one of the robbers. "WE GOT AGENTS!"

"I got them!" laughed the other robber, swerving the wheel quickly to try and ram into Gemini. She reacted coolly, evading the vehicle and aiming a gun at them.

"I suggest you pull over. I have no reservations about pulling this trigger," she warned without a hint of emotion.

The second robber saw this and ducked, making the first robber slam on the brakes to have her stream ahead of them. Dakoda, seeing this, swerved to the right and pulled out his own blaster, firing at the hood to try and cause some damage to the engine, but with little success.

"Damn it." he muttered, keeping an eye on the robbers before braking as well.

"It's armored!" Gem yelled aiming her weapon lower. "Aim for the tires!"

"We can't risk a car crash on the highway! Not without the possibility of massive casul-"

Gemini pulled the trigger in the middle of his warning, busting one of the tires and making the SUV lose traction, forcing the robbers to get off the highway or risk crashing their own getaway vehicle. They raced down an exit and off the highway into the city streets. Dakoda pulled off a device from a holster on his waist, shaped like a wolf's silhouetted head.

"All units! Disengage! We got this one!" said Dakoda into it before shutting it and putting it back on his waist. "Gem! Follow me! We're almost out of time!"

She turned and followed him, though not without yelling, "Then pick up the pace!"

Dakoda rolled his eyes and gave chase to the weakened SUV. Through his visor, he scanned the car and ran through a list of possible ways to cause minimal casualties. The words "pulse grenade" showed up and he nodded, pressing a button on his cycle and activating his targeting system. He tracked the car and rocketed down a corner until the street was clear. Looking down at the screen, he saw the words LOCK ON and immediately pressed the trigger located right near the throttle. A yellow and black colored grenade rocketed from one of the two blaster holes on the front and latched onto the rear bumper. Immediately following this, the grenade activated and wrapped the car in a yellow field of static electricity.

The robbers themselves received the shock from the grenade and the engine itself shut down, eventually coming to a halt on the empty street. Dakoda and Gemini braked side by side and paused before the area around them began to pixelate, slowly turning the world back into one large room the walls, floor, and ceiling covered in a holographic grid.

TRAINING SIMULATION COMPLETE!  
CASULTIES: 0  
RECORDED FINISH: 3'21;78  
NEW RECORD, CONGRATULATIONS AGENTS

Dakoda and Gemini removed their helmets and exited the training room, headed into the adjacent observation area where a group of cadets had been watching them, applauding the efforts of the two Agents. Sitting with them was a young adult otter who stood next to the screen that replayed the simulation that Dakoda and Gemini had just gone through.

"Good job, both of you," said the otter. "Though I'm not too keen on the strategies you used, I guess improvisation has its perks. Good thinking with the pulse grenade."

"Well as much as some of you younger cadets would have enjoyed seeing a pile up, that's not what an Agent is supposed to do." said the wolf, looking over to Gemini briefly with a look of slight disapproval. Gem returned it with a look of cool indifference.

In the middle of the room in front of the cadets, a figure digitally materialized into the room. The figure was that of a bunny, wearing a simple silver bodysuit that had green digital numbers constantly flowing through some black patterns. She turned to the Agents, who all saluted at her.

"Well done, Agents." she turned to the cadets who saluted as well. "Cadets, these are Agents Dakoda Weston and Gemini. You already know your instructor, Agent Evan Shippen. I am Merida, the central operating system for Alpha Galaxy Patrol, and I'm here to welcome you to our training program, as well as thank you for showing such drive to protect your fellow citizens. We here at Alpha Galaxy Patrol are sworn to serve and protect the people of Ganthio. This extends beyond the boundaries of Payton City. There will be times in your future here that you will be sent on long and dangerous assignments far from home, but as an Agent, it is your solemn duty to take these risks, to protect the lives of those who cannot protect themselves. We will be providing you with the training necessary to fulfill your tasks, to ensure you will return home safely. Once again, thank you for your dedication and service to Ganthio and her people, and welcome to AGP."

~!~!~!~

The hours passed slowly as the day dragged on, the sky slowly being painted orange with the setting sun as its brush. In the observatory level of the HQ, several stories up, Dakoda sat quietly on one of the benches with a small leather bound journal on his lap. It was open to a page half filled with words, various little scribbles outlining some of the edges. He had pause briefly to collect his thoughts, eyes wandering to stare at the cityscape below. From all the way up, he could see the entire city from all around, like a personal beacon of hope. He sighed quietly before going back to writing.

_I don't know why Amin keeps insisting on me writing in this journal. Last I checked, I wasn't in school nor did I have any homework. But, I suppose it's one of the ways where I can get my mind off of events I don't want to remember. It's been one year to the day that I joined the AGP. Not by choice but back then I didn't have a choice. Amin says I'm a very different person than the one he first captured. See...I'm not exactly a hero here. By definition I might be but by my own standards, well, it's just a word. It's just who people see me to be. What I see though is a survivor. I had another nightmare last night. It's basically been like all the others. I try to have a good night's sleep and I find myself floating in darkness or ending up in places I don't want to be. I need to keep a tally for how many of these damn nightmares keep repeating. This one has me back in high school, in the lab, where it happened…where everything changed. Where I died and by some odd twist of fate, came back a completely different person…someone to this day, even I still don't recognize. One year to this day...and I still don't know who I am._

Just then, a knock interrupted Dakoda's thoughts. Without waiting for a response, the door opened and Gem stepped into the observatory, her expression still the same, cold, emotionless expression it always was.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"Hm?" The wolf turned his head to see Gemini approaching him and he closed his book gently, putting it down and looking towards his partner. "I needed some alone time to collect my thoughts. Today's...different for me."

"You missed dinner," she informed him.

"Oh. I guess I lost track of time then."

"That isn't like you."

Dakoda paused briefly before crossing his arms. "I didn't think you cared."

"I don't. It was just an observation," she assured him.

"..I see. Well then I'll just have to get dinner on my own then."" he said, starting to walk towards the door.

"...why did you frown at me?"

He stopped in mid step and felt something stir in him for a moment. "Why do you care? Did you care about what could have happened in the simulator at all?"

"It was a mere simulation. A construct to mimic the real thing," Gem said, her tone giving away nothing. "We are supposed to explore all options, that's why we have the simulator to begin with. One doesn't just discard a potential avenue for a solution simply because there will be virtual damage."

Dakoda frowned, similar to before. "That's not how things work. Virtual or not, you always have to account for casualties. Think about it: had we made the car crash on the freeway, it would create a domino effect that would lead to people getting hurt, and last I checked, that's our job: to make sure people don't get hurt. You and I have different methods, I understand that, but do you really not care if someone got hurt in the process of us catching those guys?"

"To be quite frank, if one or two people get hurt in the process of saving many, many more, I would make that choice without hesitation."

"For you that's easy, for me it isn't. I have someone in my life I wouldn't be able to hurt no matter what choice it was. I would take that risk for myself, not for everyone else. What if Amin was one of those people?"

Gem paused a brief moment before continuing, "He is an Agent. He understands the risks that come with our line of work. I haven't a doubt he would mind making such a sacrifice…"

"And I do as well. My point is, I would not risk the safety of others in pursuit of one person. I don't want to imagine the pileup that would have happened. Be thankful we stopped those robbers on an empty street."

"I admit that was a preferable solution. I'm simply saying that sometimes you need to take a risk. Odd that I need to say that to you, considering how you like to improvise…" Gem raised an eyebrow at him.

Dakoda shook his head lightly. "Improvisation is key, yes, but sometimes there are risks I can't take-"

The conversation was abruptly ended as the ground beneath them began to tremble violently. An alert sounded not a moment later, and the pair hurried down to the command center in response. Dakoda opened his Badge as they made their way down to Evan's sector.

"What the hell just happened!?" said Dakoda.

"We've had substantial tectonic activity in Quadrant Epsilon of the City. What we felt was just the aftershocks. It's significantly worse out there," he responded.

"...English. Now," Gemini said.

"My best guess: earthquake. Come on." he motioned with his head as they headed down to the garage, closing the badge.

Evan deadpanned at their backs. "That's exactly what I said…"

~!~!~!~

Dakoda and Gemini took an SUV down to the area, since they were going to need more than just their two wheelers. They reached the epicenter of the quake to find an office building that looked significantly unstable now. Moving quickly as they were trained the pair entered the building and began evacuating the panicked employees as quickly as possible. Luckily the building was small enough that they were able to get everyone out before the supports gave way and the building came down. A survey of the area showed that while other buildings had been damaged by the quake, none were in immediate danger, so they instead went to each building and recommended everyone leave for safety until the damage was repaired. Dakoda looked around for himself and made sure some of the people were alright before opening his badge and calling Evan.

"You got something for us?" he asked. "I have an odd vibe about this quake."

"Give your vibe a gold star then sir, because I really have something for you," Evan replied, looking a little bit shaken. "Hold on, I'm transmitting it to you now."

The image on the screen inside the office building faded and a message came onto his screen. "Your Move"

Gem frowned. "Well that just sounds peachy," she remarked.

"Maybe it wasn't an earthquake?"" asked Dakoda. "It's not like somebody can just create an earthquake whenever they want."

"In our line of work? Expect the unexpected," Evan quipped. "Those readings were definitely an earthquake, but the fact that it was such a small and localized one is extremely irrational. The tectonic plates under the city are far too stable for a sudden and localized quake such as what we had here to occur naturally. I can't begin to theorize the sort of technology that would be required to create such unusual activity and still be able to maintain a level of secrecy while making it initially appear to be naturally occurring…"

"So that means that someone's behind whatever just happened here." said Dakoda, putting together thoughts. "Meaning that someone has a device that can create earthquakes at will. If someone has that kind of device...why pause? Why not bring the whole city down in one go? ...what did it mean before though, your move…?"

"No idea, sir," Evan admitted. "I can't trace the source of the message. Whoever sent it did not want to be identified, and they knew what they were doing if Meridia and I together can't crack it."

"We should check around more thoroughly then," Gem suggested. "If this wasn't natural, there's bound to be something to give us a lead."

Being in the plaza area with plenty of screens flashing commercials around, one of the screens suddenly went to static. Dakoda caught this from the corner of his eye and noticed a few other screens start to shift to static.

"What the…" Dakoda pulled out his blaster just in case. Evan, what's going on with the screens down here?"

"I don't know! Some sort of signal is overriding all the others!" he responded, typing furiously on his console.

As one, the screens faded from static to another message, that said, "Not a bad move, but not good enough." Then, the words disappeared from the screen and the silhouette of a coyote took their place.

"Greetings AGP. I hope my little demonstration wasn't TOO much for you to handle but that was but a taste of what I have in store for you. I...am Master Quake. Now I'm a coyote who believes that anything can be obtained with just the right amount of force. Said can be given to a pressure point on a plate or with someone...or several someone's. So I've decided to set up a little game for you all. In 24 hours, I will position my earthquake generator over the main tectonic plate in the city and create an earthquake with a magnitude so powerful, there won't be a city left for you to rebuild."

"You gotta be kidding me…" muttered Dakoda. "Evan, knock out his communications."

"What do you think I've been trying to do!? "he said, frantically typing away. "He's broadcasting on multiple frequencies at once! I can't nail him down!"

"However, such a disastrous event can be prevented for a small fee." continued Quake. "Let's say...30 million credits. That's all I'm asking for, AGP. 30 million big ones...or I'll bring this city to its knees. Now to show that I'm NOT bluffing, allow mw to show you my power: 3, 2, 1...boom."

Before Dakoda and Gemini could react, the ground began to shake violently as yet another earthquake began to tear its way through the city. This quake was further away but the tremors it delivered were still felt at a close proximity.

"Dakoda! He's hitting the shopping center!" Evan yelled into the com. "You've got to get over there, now!"

Dakoda glared up at the screen as laughter filled the air for a few brief moments, the screens then suddenly reverting to normal. He looked to Gemini and nodded and the two raced to their SUV, heading out to the shopping center. They arrived to the sounds of panicked screams and cracking structures.

"Move it, Weston!" Gem snapped as she climbed out of the car, firing a shot that crumbled a rather sizeable piece of debris before it crushed a child that had been directly underneath it.

Dakoda smirked slightly. "You saved that kid."

Gem's ear twitched slightly, the only visible sign of agitation she ever displayed. "That's the job. Now move it!" She hurried forward, ushering the people away from danger.

Dakoda chuckled quietly to himself before hurrying to help her. The pair of them were able to get the people to safety despite some additional difficulty when the aftershock hit. The shopping center did not collapse, though it was very clear that no one would be relaxing at the mall for quite a while. Just as they were able to breathe, a nearby screen that had not been destroyed came on, displaying Quake again.

"Remember AGP. 30 million credits is the price, and I expect swift payment," he said, chuckling pleasantly as though this were a simple card game. "Good luck to you, and make your next move count!" He gave them a friendly wave as the transmission ended.

Dakoda growled and slammed his hand on the steering wheel in frustration, his hand glowing faintly for a moment before it subdued.

Gem came over to him, her expression once again that cold indifference, though her ear did twitch slightly. "We should head back. I doubt we're going to get anything else accomplished out here."

"Unfortunately she's right." said Evan from the badge. "It's gonna take me awhile but I'm gonna find a way to stop this. Leave this to me alright?"

Dakoda nodded. "...alright. I trust you on this."

~!~!~!~

The next morning saw a very frustrated Dakoda awake to an alert. It wasn't the same sort of alert as the emergencies, rather a notification of important information. He made his way to the intelligence sector to see Gem standing over Evan's shoulder, looking rather impatient. To the other side of the poor otter stood a handsome tan fox in a red button up shirt with long black hair pulled into a ponytail., watching the computer screen. A crossbow holster rested on his hip, and he was trying to get Gemini to give Evan a little breathing room. This was Amin, possibly the only person on the planet that Gemini would willingly spend time with, though neither had divulged the reasons why. He was AGP's top intelligence Agent, and he knew it, which made him a little cocky sometimes. Fortunately, he was always very focused when it came to doing his job.

Accustomed to displays like this when the three were in the same room, Dakoda merely shook his head. Suddenly, Evan sat up with a triumphant cry, smirking.

"Hah! They have yet to design the encryption that I can't break into! I already had some good info for you two, but now this addition will make bringing down this so-called "Master Quake" simpler by a significant margin!" he cheered.

"What did you find on that processor?" Amin asked.

"What processor?" Dakoda interrupted.

"Oh right, sorry," Amin apologized. "Last night, while the cleanup crews were doing their thing at that office building, I decided to go have a look around for myself to see if I could dig up anything you two might not have." He gave a slightly cocky grin. "It is my specialty after all."

"Modesty is never your strong suit, Amin. Let's cut to the point here. We have a situation on our hands," Dakoda suggested, causing Amin to give an apologetic smile.

"Anyways, I found the remains of something that looked like it could have been office equipment, but a closer look showed some rather disturbing components. Depth gauge, stability reader, and most importantly, a high powered, encrypted processor that has no business being on a copy machine. I brought the parts back here to good ol' Evan, and he's been spending the better part of his night deciphering the information on that processor."

"And I'm guessing we may have some form of a lead now?" asked the Gemini.

Amin stood and looked at the duo. "Our Master Quake is named Jaigon Benta. A quick run through the most basic of databases made finding this guy's history easy. He used to be a construction worker, though his records show he was mediocre at best. He specialized in demolitions, but got himself fired when he got carried away with those big booms while clearing a site. He disappeared off the map after losing that job, went underground. Evan did a little digging, and we found out something really special."

Evan turned in his chair to continue where Amin left off. "Benta has been dealing off-world, creating experimental energy generators with the claimed intention of 'giving cities a fresh start,' but his work, or what I've been able to locate of it given how little time I had to research, indicates he was utilizing illegal, unstable sources, garnering a substantial profit while leaving his customers with a hazardous generator which they believed could supply them more economical energy, allowing them to develop a far superior manner of living."

Gem glanced at Amin, who said, "He made cracked out generators for people off-world, using dangerous and illegal materials and methods. He made himself a big supply of cash, but gave the people dangerous energy sources, all while pretending to be helping them build better lives."

Evan frowned, but remained quiet.

"So, con artist, is it? Hardly surprising, considering his demand for credits," Gem scoffed. "Con artist to extortionist isn't that big of a leap."

"Oh, it gets better," Amin grumbled. "Those generators are directly responsible for this entire scheme. See, a couple of those cheap-as-hell generators failed, but one of them failed rather catastrophically. It didn't explode, rather it sort of caved in on itself, and the backlash caused a huge tremor as the reaction went into the ground and reached the tectonic plates of that city. That accident leveled no less than eight square blocks around it, but instead of learning a lesson, Benta saw a bigger opportunity. He used his knowledge of demolitions and experience with making these generators to refine a controlled quake generator. That's what we're dealing with here."

"All of this is fascinating, but I don't get how this helps us stop him," Dakoda interrupted.

"Oh, but it does," Evan said, smirking. "Those attacks he's already caused, plus understanding the tech behind it means I can turn it against him AND use it to track him. See, those were smaller generators. They had a signal, a very unique signal, that triggered them, and because of thaaaaat…." Evan turned around and brought up a city map on the screen, which displayed the east side of the city. "Presto! I can't nail down an exact location, but he is without a doubt in this area."

Amin tilted his head. "That's right by the business district...oh boy…"

Dakoda grinned. "Great work you two. Gem, gear up. We're headed out."

~!~!~!~

Deep underground within the subway tunnels of Payton City, a familiar muscular coyote was busy typing away on a keyboard connected to a central hub setup, keeping track of city activity and displaying his still empty bank account.

"What a pity…" he chuckled, "They're that stupid enough to be stubborn and risk their city? 30 million wasn't too much to ask."

The monitor started beeping and Jaigon turned his attention towards the screen, seeing two red dots making their way down the tunnel. Jaigon groaned as he turned around, hearing and seeing the monitors that kept track of the tunnels go static one-by-one. Someone was systemically taking out his cameras, and he had a feeling he knew who.

"Right on time…" he said, turning around and bringing up a walkie-talkie. "We got company fellas. Be polite, and show them a good time."

Deeper down the tunnel, a group of thugs waited patiently with bats and clubs, ready to deal with any intruders. The sound of running feet caught their attention and they gasped when they saw the outlines of a wolf and vixen running through the tunnels towards them. Before the thugs could charge in, the duo was right there to deliver a beat down onto each of the thugs. In less than two minutes, the thugs were KO'ed on the floor. As the two raced down the tunnel towards the signal, they eventually came upon the station where Jaigon was waiting for them, his hand on the keyboard.

"AGP! You're under arrest, Jaigon Benta!" yelled the wolf.

"And just like a bad penny, YOU two finally show up!" laughed the coyote. "But you're already too late. In just a couple minutes, I level this city with an attack the likes of which you've never seen!"

"Not if we can help it!" said Dakoda. "It doesn't have to be this way, Jaigon."

"Step away from the keyboard and get on the ground NOW or we will use force!" said Gemini.

Jaigon shook his head and suddenly pressed a button on the keyboard, activating the generators around the city. He stepped away and put his hands behind his head before suddenly making a run for it up the stairs to the entrance.

"Leave him to me!" said Dakoda, giving chase. "You figure out how to shut those down!"

Gem nodded and Dakoda quickly ran after Jaigon. Though Jaigon was quick, Dakoda was resilient and full of energy, eventually catching up to the coyote and shooting a ball of fire at him. The ball slammed into Jaigon and the impact made him scream and crash onto the ground. Dakoda caught up to the coyote as he grumbled and got to his feet, staring down the wolf.

"You can't stop my reign of destruction, Agent Weston!" laughed Jaigon. "The only way change can begin is with total destruction, starting from scratch! I BRING REVOLUTION!"

"You are out of you goddamn mind." said Dakoda, assuming a stance. "I'm asking you one last time, Jaigon. Surrender now or this won't end well for you."

"Empty threats, Agent Weston. Put up or SHUT up."

Dakoda paused briefly before smirking, suddenly charging in. Jaigon tried to throw a punch but Dakoda ducked and speared Jaigon in the shoulder. The muscular wolf hoisted Jaigon up and twisted him around, slamming him hard into the ground. Dakoda proceeded to rain down punches hard onto his face. Jaigon shoved him off and pulled out a pipe from his belt and waited for Dakoda to get up. Jaigon thwacked Dakoda in the face and knocked him down, proceeding to start kicking him in the stomach. Dakoda rolled out of the way and Jaigon jumped on him, trying to use the pipe to choke out the wolf. Dakoda struggled as the pipe pressed hard against his larynx. Getting to his feet, he ran backwards and sandwiched Jaigon into the wall, hitting hard elbows into his sides. Jaigon tried to swing again with the pipe but Dakoda blocked and then brought his hand up and caught the pipe, his eyes suddenly flashing red along with his hand. Jaigon watched in confusion as Dakoda clenched the pipe in his hand and set his hand on fire, making the pipe too hot for Jaigon to hold.

"What the-!?" Jaigon watched Dakodas hands. "How did you do that!?"

"You really wanna tempt me Jaigon?" the wolf growled and assumed his stance. "Surrender. NOW."

Jaigon rolled his eyes and shook his head before going in to try and kick him. Dakoda caught the leg and grinned, pinning and clocking Jaigon with a back elbow. He proceeded to hit a hard series of punches at Jaigon's ribs and head. The coyote tried countering but Dakoda's martial arts were proving too much. He fell onto the ground and scrambled for his pipe, turning around and suddenly attacking Dakoda in the groin with the pipe. Dakoda groaned out as the pain forced him to keel over and Jaigon scored a hard uppercut that knocked Dakoda away.

"Not today, Agent Weston!" laughed the coyote. "Not...today."

With the wolf incapacitated, Jaigon took this as a hint to run away as fast as he could. Dakoda got up groggily and watched him get away before shaking his head and hurrying back to Gemini, realizing that time was running out.

Gem, meanwhile, was having some severe difficulty. There was a reason she often had to have someone translate what Evan said, and now it was biting her in the tail. Still, she did the best that she could with the computer training that all Agents received. Typing like a madwoman, she eventually got past the firewalls and broke down the activation codes, just barely managing to stop the signal to the generators. Unfortunately, in her fumbling, she somehow managed to turn this signal back onto the console itself, starting a tremor in the tunnel. She attempted to shut this down, but the vibrations were too strong, and she was unable to maintain focus long enough to stop it.

"Gemini, what the heck is going on down there!?" yelled Evan. "You tripped one of the failsafes!"

"...I don't do computers, okay?" she retorted, her ear twitching. "That's your thing! Can you hack it?"

"I can, but not fast enough to keep the tunnel from coming down on you and Dakoda!" Evan answered, sounding agitated. "Okay, what you need to-"

"...the hell with it," Gem grumbled.

She pulled out her blaster and shot the console, causing arcs, sparks, and eventually a sizeable explosion, after which the tremor stopped. Right at the moment, Dakoda emerged from the staircase and stopped right by his partner.

"Or, that works too," Evan said, though he sounded frustrated.

Gem holstered her blaster calmly and turned to Dakoda. "Jaigon?"

"...he got away. Bastard pulled a fast one on me and got away before I could stop him."

"So we can add coward to the list of his charming traits," Gemini remarked.

"What matters is we stopped a quake from destroying the city." said Dakoda, rubbing the back of his head. "Whatever's left of these generators, Evan can find them and Amin will bring in a team to take them down."

"A successful day," Gem admitted.

The two fist-bumped briefly before leaving the area, relieve the earthquakes were now put to rest.

~!~!~!~

Jaigon closed the heavy doors behind himself, a frustrated look on his face. He would have liked to see some more damage get done, but beggars couldn't be choosers after all. He had been there for a purpose.

"_Jaigon!"_

Jaigon turned with a smirk, approaching the source of the voice. It came from a computer system, though the screens were not displaying any image. Deciding not to dilly-dally, he responded.

"Don't worry. It worked. Not as much chaos as I would have liked, but I already accomplished what you sent me there to do, and best of all, AGP has no idea." He grinned darkly. "It won't be long before we see the end of Alpha Galaxy Patrol."

"_Do you really think it's going to be that easy, Jaigon? Or are you really THAT naive?"_

The coyote rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Trust me, I've got a plan. I've always-"

"_YOU will do no such planning without my consent or permission. I hired you for a reason Jaigon and that was to bring out our enemies and study them. YOU will stick exactly to my plan without question, is that understood?"_

"...yes." mumbled Jaigon.

"_Louder. I do not tolerate mumbling."_

"ALRIGHT!" yelled Jaigon. "...but dude, you better give me something to take on that wolf's fire powers or I'm toast."

"_Don't worry, there's always something to withstand an element. Always…"_

~!~!~!~

A few hours after disabling the generators, Dakoda returned to his dorm and wrote down what had happened in his journal, taking a long, warm shower before deciding to invite Gemini out for a drink. It had been a long day and being a social drinker, he needed to unwind. He slipped out of his uniform and went with a more casual look, sporting a dark red tanktop and navy blue jeans with black gym shoes and a black button up t-shirt unbuttoned to show his tanktop. He sighed quietly as he grabbed his badge and pocketed it, grabbing his wallet and blaster just in case.

He arrived downtown on his motorcycle to a lively looking poolhall with the word "JENGAS" lit up in hot pink neon lights. Dakoda parked his motorcycle and made his way inside, listening to the sounds of people talking and cheering over the pool tables and the light music coming from the stereos on the four corners of the hall. He walked over to the bar where a male dingo in a pink tanktop, black jeans, and bandana was serving drinks to customers. When he saw Dakoda, he went right over to him and waved.

"Right on time, lobo," said the dingo. "Are you okay? I was worried the quakes might have gobbled up my favorite customer."

"Heaven forbid." said the wolf with a chuckle, getting to the bar and leaning over to give the dingo a hug. "You would only miss the tips."

The dingo scoffed and put his hand to his chest faking offense. "Oh now you KNOW that's not true, hun."

Dakoda smiled lightly and sat in front of him, arms laying on the counter. "I know Humboldt. I'm only teasing you."

"So you caught the bad guy?" he asked.

"Not exactly but we managed to stop the city from being sunk six feet under?" the wolf replied with a confident smile.

"Ah, now that's what i like to hear!" Humboldt reached over and ruffled Dakodas head playfully, looking into his eyes. "Leave it to my favorite lobo to save the day."

"You flatter me too often, sexy." he smirked, leaning over to kiss him gently. "The usual, if that's alright?"

"When is it never NOT alright?" asked Humboldt, giggling and tilting his head. "Give me one minute."

Dakoda nodded and watched Humboldt leave, smiling and taking out his badge to check a few things. It was at that point that Gem walked through the door. She wore a zip-up purple spaghetti-string top over a black tube top, black jeans, a loosely-tied tan sash around her waist, and purple and white sneakers. She looked surprisingly stylish given her nature, and more than a couple of heads turned to look, although these same heads turned right back around when Gem gave them an icy glare.

She sat next to Dakoda and gave him a quizzical look. "Any particular reason you asked me to come here? If this is your attempt to get me out on a date, you're wasting your time."

"He doesn't swing that way anymore!" laughed Humboldt as he passed by and waved lightly at her. "Not after-"

"Bolt!" laughed Dakoda, embarrassed before turning to Gem who rolled her eyes at the two's flirting. "Relax. I'm not here to pull any funny moves. I figured I owe you two things. One, I owe you an apology for being hard on you and two...what you did down in the subway, I'm surprised you took a page from my book. It was risky but you made it work."

"I merely did what I had to do. There were lives at stake after all," Gem said. Her ear twitched at the praise, though.

Dakoda gave her a look. "Gem? Be real with me. I'm trying to say thank you."

"...I will not be responsible for failing, not when failing has such a high price," she said after several minutes. "The number of lives riding on the outcome was far too great for me to not take a chance. Besides, that is what AGP is all about. We do what's needed so that others don't have to."

She looked at Dakoda and for the first time, he saw something in her eyes besides the cold indifference she perpetually projected. There was sincerity. She was being fully honest with him, talking just a little openly. For all her icy personality traits, Gemini was dedicated to her job, something Dakoda had known for a long time. All the same, it was nice to have confirmation about it. Humboldt stopped by the two and gave them glasses of butterscotch whiskey, smiling at the two. Dakoda picked up his glass and looked to Gem.

"Ain't that the truth." he smiled. "To partnership."

Gem raised her own glass. "To AGP."


	2. Frostbite

**ALPHA GALAXY PATROL: CALL TO ACTION**  
**EPISODE 2: FROSTBITE**  
**WRITTEN BY ZAK KAYES AND KATHRINE HAWKINS**

If ever you were to go into the shopping district or hear word of it from a friend, you'd know that Payton City's western sector was FILLED with various little shops all surrounding one of two of Payton City's finest shopping centers. Even though the recent quakes had damaged one of the centers, this only meant more business for the other three story tall center. Amin had liked to visit the center from time to time, spending most of his time conserving his money but big paychecks for him equaled a little bit of "splurging". He was a conservative fox and never wished to go full out on fancy and expensive presents. In fact, most of the time, he bought gifts for his friends. Whether they be big or small, his friends reactions were always worthwhile to him.

At the mall, Amin causally skimmed through one of the clothing stores, deciding to buy himself some new clothes. Other than his usual attire, he wore a black sweatshirt with a galaxy decal on the back, He hummed quietly to the music playing in his earbuds, picking out a few t-shirts and noticing a green long sleeve t-shirt with a dragon on the front.

"Ooo, I bet Artie will LOVE this." he snickered, tail swaying at the thought of his lover. "So that's one for him, one or two for me...I wonder if Dakoda wants any? Maybe Gem? I think she likes the sash I gave her."

As he carried a conversation with himself, he was unaware of two skinny and shifty looking red foxes with black hoodies, wandering through the same clothing store. Once they bumped past him though, Amin turned his attention to them and took out his earbuds. Watching from the corner of his eyes, he noticed the two foxes casually slip some food into their hoodie pockets. Amin rolled his eyes and silently approached them before someone else noticed them shoplifting.

"Excuse me, sir?" said the cashier.

Amin quickly moved back out of the foxes eyesight as they looked to the cashier. One of them removed his hood to show spiky brown hair with black tints, giving the cashier an annoyed look.

"I'm starving." he said, coldly without emotion. "And I ain't got the money to waste on ramen again. So why don't ya pretend ya didn't see anything and just let us go."

The cashier gulped but stood firm. "No sir, I cannot allow that. You're going to have to pay."

The other fox chuckled quietly and took off his own hood, showing off no hair upon his head. He nodded towards the other fox who drew out his gun on the cashier.

"Ah-kay. Ya wanna make this hard then?" said the fox with the gun. "Empty the register. Now."

Amin rolled his eyes and was about to bring out his crossbow till the other fox turned around and drew his own gun.

"Matter-a fact!" said the fox. "Everyone get on the ground and slide your wallets on the floor. We're making a little deposit today!"

The bald fox suddenly stepped out of the store and onto the second floor of the mall, looking around and then shooting into the air to get peoples attention. Amin realized he couldn't just stand by and let these crooks just start terrorizing people. He stood up defiantly and glared at the bald robber.

"I just bought this shirt, you know," he remarked with a smirk. "Wouldn't do to get it all wrinkled and dirty already, would it?"

The bald fox turned, as did the other one, and stared at Amin, immediately drawing their guns at him.

"I SAID DOWN ON THE GROUND, PUNK!" yelled the bald fox.

Before either of them could react, Amin whipped out his crossbow and shot an arrow down each barrel, jamming their weapons and rendering them useless. "And I said I don't wanna mess up my shirt," he replied. "So, here we are, two robbers without guns, and one officer with his crossbow drawn. Quite the pickle you two have gotten yourselves into."

The brown-haired robber grimaced and tossed his gun aside, raising his arms. "Looks like you got us…" he muttered before flicking his wrist, pulling out a smaller gun that had been hidden under his sleeve. "Or maybe you don't!" He aimed at the cashier's head. "Last time. On the ground."

The bald fox stalked Amin and slipped out a knife from his wrist, just in case, and drew it on Amin at close distance.

"Don't do anything stupid-" he blinked and then noticed the badge inside his hoody. "SHIT! HE'S AN AGENT!"

"Give the man a gold star, he's on to me," Amin said.

The bald fox, deciding not to waste any more time, aimed his knife at Amin but he was ready, stepping to the side and bashing the bald fox in the face with a backhand. The other fox turned to notice this and put his gun away, going over to Amin and threw a punch but Amin countered by bringing up his arm to block the fox's strike, going in with some boxing like jabs to his ribs and his face to try and stun him. Unfortunately, a two on one fight was not in Amin's favor for as he tried to knock the fox down and incapacitate him, the other fox grabbed Amin by his sweatshirt and dragged him by his hood. Amin struggled and let out a yelp as he was picked up and suddenly thrown through one of the glass windows. He crashed on the floor and rolled, groaning from the sudden attack. He got onto his feet only to get a sledgehammer like punch to his gut, making him keel over. The two foxed ganged up on him and restrained him, the bald fox pulling out a knife on Amin.

"Wow, and you said these Agents were tough?" laughed the bald fox. "Give me a freakin break."

Amin growled, wishing he were a more competent fighter. He was going to need some help to take these two down like this...

"HEY!" said a voice not too far from them. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Amin and the other foxes turned to see that the voice belonged to an arctic fox with a braid tail, standing there casually with a walking stick on his shoulder. He wore a navy blue vest over a cyan blue t-shirt with black cargo jeans. He wore thick black sunglasses as well.

"Stay outta this!" yelled one of the foxes, drawing his gun suddenly on the arctic fox. "Don't make me put a bullet in your head because I swear I-"

"Don't bother." said the arctic fox, his hand glowing a light blue. "When people like you make empty threats, it only proves your words are as brave as your spine: cowardly."

The bald fox just shook his head and clicked the trigger on his gun. The arctic fox's ear twitched and he stood still. But with a move that almost couldn't be seen to the naked eye, a blast of ice erupted from the arctic fox's hand and glossed the gun in ice, rendering it useless.

Amin just kind of stared at the entire display, more than a little dumbstruck. _Next time, I'm wishing for a million bucks, _he thought.

The bald fox looked at his gun and shivered, dropping it onto the ground and glaring at the arctic fox. The fox holding Amin looked to the arctic fox and his eyes widened.

"...ya gotta be kidding me. I thought we killed that freak!?" he yelled.

"Well he'll wish he was dead once I'm done with him." said the other fox, approaching the arctic one.

The arctic's ear twitched and he stood still. When the bald one threw a punch, the white fox simply swayed to avoid it. The bald one growled and started yelling as he started throwing punches. The arctic kept dodging and swaying, bringing up his own fists and arms to consistently deflect his attacks. The bald one tried to go for a straight punch to the face but the arctic one caught it in his hand and covered it in ice, subsequently covering his own hanging fist in ice as well. The arctic clocked the bald straight in the face with an ice covered fist and followed it up with a cross-chop to the throat, a hard punch to his ribs similar to the one that had been given to Amin, and finished up with a spinning roundhouse kick that knocked the bald one out cold on the ground. The other red fox looked down at his fallen friend and then up to the arctic one in fear. He shoved Amin away and started to run. The arctic one turned his attention to the fleeing fox and first went to check on Amin.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Uuh… yeah, I'm fine," he responded before coming to his sense. "Who the heck are ya anyway?"

The arctic fox didn't answer and noticed the red fox getting away. He looked around briefly before noticing a jewelry stand on a walkway connecting the two sides of the second level. He put his cane away and then ran over, leaping up onto the stand and launching himself up onto the glass barrier and clinging to it, climbing up onto the third level. The red fox had gone to the third level to get to the parking garage but was once again met by the arctic fox, growling in frustration.

"Oh come on!" he yelled. "Why do YOU have to show up?! You're supposed to be dead!"

The arctic fox narrowed his eyes under his sunglasses and watched the red fox's movements. The red fox charged in and aimed for a few kicks at the arctic fox but the fox was quick, ducking and diving again before suddenly blasting the red fox in the face with ice. He screamed out and tried throwing wild punches but the arctic one was quick to block and clap both his hands over the red fox's ears to disorient him. He blocked a strike with his elbow and followed up with a punch to the rib and to the jaw. He hit another hard punch into the red fox's side and hit a swift right hook to the red fox's jaw to make him stumble back near the glass barrier.

The arctic fox hesitated for a second before moving in and running, jumping up and delivering a powerful kick right to the red fox's face to send him flying. He went flying right off the third floor and crashed through a stand selling watches, crushing the stand on impact. He groaned as he passed out from the pain. The arctic fox watched and panted quietly, dusting his shoulder for a second before turning around to look right at Amin.

There were several seconds of silence, then Amin said with some trepidation in his voice, "Thank you for the help, but unfortunately I need to bring you in as well."

"...what for?" he asked, not showing any signs of resistance.

"Two reasons. One… you intervened with police business. I'm grateful you did, but that is still against the law. Second… you were able to intervene. I mean, seriously." He gestured to the TKO'd fox. "You did that to these two guys, plus…." He looked over to the gun that his rescuer had iced, which was still frozen on the floor.

The arctic fox looked towards the gun and then to the two people ko'ed on the ground. "...very well. Lead the way. I wish not to fight you."

~!~!~!~

Gemini opened the door to the interrogation room. The arctic fox that Amin had brought in had been escorted there upon arrival, awaiting questioning. Gem was not pleased about having to be the one to question him, but they were her orders, and she would do them. Without a word of greeting she sat at the table, in the chair opposite from him.

"Please state your name and occupation."

The arctic fox sat quietly in the chair, his hands on the table. "...your voice. It...sounds familiar."

"Name and occupation," she repeated.

"Helada. Helada Oron. I'm from the Icesune Academy in the southern mountains of Ganthio. I have no current occupation but I currently live in Payton City on my own."

Gem noted all of this on her datapad. "Agent Amin informed us that the criminals seemed familiar with you. Association with the guilty parties?"

"Association how?" he asked.

"How are you associated with them? Amin mentioned that they said they attempted to kill you, so I'm not assuming they are your friends. Still, what is your association with them?"

"Their voices were familiar." said Helada, crossing his arms lightly. "I am not associated with them in any shape or form. Their names...Pathos, Terrence, and Fillion. They WERE Icesune students."

"Former classmates then. Nothing significant," she noted, adding the data. "And your abilities. How did you come by them?"

"...it's a long story."

Gemini frowned. "Very well. I'm not in the mood for a dragged out tale." She stood up. "It's clear your intentions were good, therefore you will be let off with a warning. However, I would advise you to stay clear of AGP's work. We do things that are normally beyond the scope of the police. This was merely a special case. Also, in the future, I would be far more careful about how much damage you deal out. I realize they were robbers, but the injuries they received were rather severe."

"...compared to what they have done to others and myself, they have done far worse." he narrowed his eyes slightly. "And I am no bully. I only wished to help and if I am correct, helping someone in need is far better than just sitting back and watching something, if I may use the term, burn. As an Agent, this is true, yes?"

"...yes. Still, be mindful of it. Your intentions may be right, but you are not an Agent, understood?" She walked over to the door and opened it. "You are free to go."

He nodded and slowly stood up, looking for his cane and then taking it in his hand, walking away. He stopped though right by Gemini and looked to her.

"...if it's any consolation, it's good to see you again...Gemmy." said Helada, smiling lightly before leaving.

Gem dropped her datapad. She had not mentioned her name to him… how had he known it? Moreover, what did he mean "again?" How on Ganthio did he know her? Both Dakoda and Amin watched the interrogation from the other room, Dakoda half listening while watching the security footage of Helada's fight.

"So...what do you think?" asked Dakoda.

"I think you would be looking for a new intelligence Agent if this guy hadn't come along when he did," Amin answered honestly. "Just his martial arts skills alone are impressive, but then there's this whole ice thing he was doing. It's not unlike your fire powers, except the whole opposite elements thing, but that's besides the point. This guy has some serious skills…"

"He said something about an Icesune Academy." said the wolf, crossing his arms. "What do we know about that?"

Amin brought up some info on the screen. "This place… if this is where those two bastards went to school, then it's no wonder I was having trouble with them. It's a martial arts academy to teach people to learn how to channel their soul and gain balance. They believe that the mountains are watched over by the Icesune spirit and that she will bestow some kind of 'sonar' ability. Something about seeing without seeing, whatever that means."

"Seeing without seeing?" he put his hand on his chin. "That doesn't quite explain his powers though. Learning martial arts is one thing but gaining those kinds of powers is not easy."

Amin looked up to him. "You would know, huh?"

Dakoda silently nodded. "He's free to go but I would say keep an eye on him, just in case. People with that kind of power can easily be turned or corrupted."

"Yes sir," Amin said.

~!~!~!~

Far across town, at one of the taller apartment complexes, a tan fennec fox made his way quietly through the hallways of the building. He wore a navy blue hoody with a lightning bolt on the back along with jet black pants and boots to match. Arriving at one of the doors, he looked around briefly before knocking on the door. The fox kept his hood up so as not to have his identity shown to the casual eye.

_Fillion! _came a voice out of a broadcaster sitting on a rickety table. _Were you successful?_

The fox turned his head and walked over to the table. "...we really gotta do it like this, Jai?"

_You are not permitted to refer to me with such familiarity! _Jaigon snapped.

"Blah blah, cut the shit Jaigon," huffed Fillion, his ear twitching. "Pathos and Terrence got a litle ahead of themselves and got their asses handed to them when they were trying to rob the mall."

_I assume that means they've been apprehended then?_ Jaigon asked.

"...yeah. And I ain't too happy on WHO captured them. It doesn't matter though. I got what you wanted, no problem." said Fillion with a smirk, taking out a stun baton from his pocket. "...no problem at all."

_Good. At least you remain useful, _Jaigon "complimented."

"So where's my money at?"

_You will receive your payment once my plans come to fruition,_ Jaigon assured him. _Until then, I still have a task I need you to handle._ A projector on the broadcaster suddenly showed the footage of the fight at the mall, including the one who caught Fillion's cohorts.

Fillion grinned. "...consider it done."

~!~!~!~

The next morning, Gemini and Dakoda geared up, ready to start their morning patrols. As they drove their route Gem, as per usual, was silent and just focused on the road. Dakoda noticed, however, that her ear flickered every few seconds. When they stopped at a light, he turned his head lightly to look at her.

"...you hungry? I was gonna stop for drive thru."

"Sure," she responded plainly.

"Anywhere in particular? It's my treat."

"Someplace edible," was all he got.

Dakoda nodded slightly and turned the car onto the next lane. A moment of silence stretched between them before he broke it. "...so how'd that fox know you?"

There was a very distinct ear twitch at that question. "What?"

"You've been quiet all of last night and this morning, more so than usual. That fox KNEW you and you had this look on your face that confused the hell outta me."

"You've told me on many occasions that I confuse you," Gem said, attempting to remain her usual stoic self.

"Because I can never figure you out. Somebody finally gets through and you just shrug it off like nothing. Who is Helada to you?" he paused. "...ex boyfriend?"

That earned him a frosty glare. "I have never wasted my time on mundane things like dating," she snarled, seemingly offended.

"Really now? Then what makes Amin so special?" He tilted his head, looking at her. "You and Amin are close, like actual talking more than a few words to. You SEEK him out and talk to him. This guy, Helada, HOW does he know you?"

Gemini was silent for a second before their badges began beeping. Dakoda picked up his badge and flipped it open. "What's up, E?"

The voice barely came through due to heavy static. "Da-oda? You -ere? Can - hear me?"

"Evan, you're blanking on me." said Dakoda, looking at the badge and pressing some buttons before hearing static. "...the hell?"

"-massive interfer- hacking the- Sending coordinates of ori-" The transmission broke up completely, but a set of coordinates were sent to Dakoda's badge.

"Source of the interference?" Gem asked.

Dakoda pressed some buttons on the badge and a coordinate location showed up on the mini map. "Not far from here. Old warehouse it looks like."

"Why is it always a warehouse?" Gem wondered idly.

"We'll worry about it later. Let's go."

~!~!~!~

Amin stretched as he strolled down the street, on his way to see a very particular someone with a huge grin on his face. His good mod was disrupted, however, when he heard some very loud yelling and cursing coming from the apartment building he was passing by. He frowned at the commotion, wondering why some folks couldn't just keep their personal disputes from the world and felt compelled to broadcast them to the public like that. To his shock, a few seconds later saw Helada come darting out of the front door with a deep frown on his face, the yelling following him out.

"DON'T GIVE ME ANY OF YOUR FUCKING EXCUSES YOU FREELOADER! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF YOUR EYES DON'T FUCKING WORK! YOU EITHER PAY THE DAMN RENT OR I WILL THROW YOU OUT ON YOUR FROSTY TAIL!"

Helada looked like he was restraining himself as he had his back turned towards the tiger that followed him out. He turned around slowly towards him. "...please. I need this place. My job laid me off but if you would give me some time to just get my last check-"

"Aw, poor little blind sob story. Don't act like that makes you special! You owe me rent, and I don't give a shit if your dead-beat ass got kicked out whatever pitiful place had some shred of kindness to hire your handicapped rear! You fucking owe your rent, on time, and today is the fucking deadline! So I suggest you hustle your scrawny little albino ass and get me my money before the day is done!" the tiger spat out nastily.

Helada clenched his fist and it started to glow blue but as he raised it up, he paused and just stared at the tiger, not saying a word but clearly frustrated and angry. The tiger just snorted at him and turned to go back inside.

"Freak," he muttered, slamming the door rather harshly behind him.

Helada muttered to himself and kept his fists clenched, the blue turning to a darker shade of blue before the foxes ear twitched, him turning around and ready to fire an ice beam...before seeing Amin.

"Nice guy. Bet he's great with kids," Amin said rather sarcastically, approaching Helada.

Helada slowly lowered his fist and sighed quietly, the glow going away. "...how did you find me?"

"In all honesty, I was just passing by. I didn't even know you lived on this street," Amin confessed. "...you're in trouble?"

Helada's ear twitched slightly. "...it's…it's not of importance to you. Unfortunate circumstances-"

"You lost your job," Amin interrupted. "And you have a dickhead landlord who doesn't give a damn about that. I was listening for a while there, Helada." He gave him a very serious look. "Including the part about you being blind."

Helada showed a slight bit of emotion as he exhaled gently. "...I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that out."

Amin raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Yeah, I guess the glasses and cane should have been a giveaway, but somehow I got thrown by the way you fought and seemed to see absolutely everything around you all the time." He paused for a moment before asking, "How the hell do you do what you do if you can't even see?"

"...as hard as it is to believe, I am not entirely blind. I CAN see. My vision is not perfect but there is a level of sight."

"What do you mean?" Amin asked, his curiosity getting a grip on him.

Helada crossed his arms lightly. "I thought your little machine would have been able to tell you everything about me. From what I've seen that device can bring up someone's entire history."

"... you know about that, huh?" Amin's ears folded back. "Yeah, we can dig into your history, but that doesn't mean we know everything about a person. In your case, we only have bare bones. We know where you went to school, but that's about it. Even that we only know because you told us in the interrogation."

The arctic fox nodded before walking forward to sit down on one of the benches. "...you know how bats use sound to see in the dark? They are blind with only some form of awareness but they use sound to be able to see things. When I said not perfect vision, I can see an outline of someone or something. That's how I see: through sonar."

"Sonar? But you're a fox, same as me. There's no way you have an ability like that naturally," Amin protested. "Not to mention all the other things you can do. Your martial arts are one thing, but the ice powers? How does one come by such a thing?"

_This is one nosy Agent, _Helada thought to himself. He wasn't sure whether or not to tell Amin but he could see the outline of Amin and the white glow around him. He looked to him, thick sunglasses hiding most of his face before he sighed.

"...I never asked for my powers. I got them completely by accident. When I was born, there were complications during birth that left me with eyesight problems. I've lived in the mountains all my life with my mother. My father, he left shortly after I was born and never came home."

"What an ass," Amin couldn't help but interject.

"My mother suggested I join the school since she worked there herself. I was a dedicated student but due to my...impaired vision...I was the subject of bullying. And often times the bullies were led by three foxes: Pathos, Terrence...and Fillion, their leader. And the only one I could turn to who helped me and pushed me to increase my training and not give up...was Gemini."

"Wha...who...how…..WHAT?!" Amin's eyes could not have been any wider. "Gemini?! My Gemini?! Ice woman Gemini?! You're not serious!"

Helada nodded. "She wasn't always so...cold. I couldn't see past her mask but I know there IS a mask where there shouldn't be. She was, how do you say...cocky. She was very dedicated to her training and wanted to excel at what she did. She didn't care about what anyone said about her and she always looked out for me. She helped me train and showed me that while it's hard, if she never gave up then neither should I. I don't know what happened though to make her so detached from everything and uncaring of the world around her."

Amin was silent. He did know, but he had also promised to keep her secrets, so even if Helada said he was an old friend of hers, he wouldn't tell him about what had happened to her. "So then, how do your powers come into the story here?"

"...9 months into me joining the school, Fillion and his friends attacked me and I fought against Fillion on my own. He almost killed me and I suffered a concussion that made me go from partilly blind to fully blind. Gem helped me as much she could but my attempts to lean the sonar were failing. I can remember one day where I heard the sound of someone crying and asking for help out by the lake in the mountains. It had frozen over and I followed the sound out onto the lake. Gem showed up too late to warn me that it was a trap that Fillion and the others had set up for me. I fell through the lake...and…"

"Wait wait wait! You fell into a frozen lake? But that should have killed you!" Amin interrupted.

"...it did."

"Come again?"

Helada sighed quietly. "It DID kill me. They told me that I was legally dead for 15 minutes only after they rescued me from the waters. What happened in those waters though...I still can't explain. Students of the Icesune Academy train to be blessed with the Icesune's powers but she saw something in me...and she spoke to me. She told me that someone like me shouldn't have to suffer and that I could be so much more. So...she bestowed an orb of energy and gave it to me, giving me powers similar to hers. She brought my sight back through sonar and I awoke in the hospital bed. I looked everywhere for Gemmy but I couldn't find her anywhere. So...I finished school and...left."

"...Icesune. The actual Icesune spirit. You mean to tell me that legend is true?" Amin said flatly, attempting to process this information.

"It is." said Helada, raising his hand up to produce a small series of floating ice crystals. "...it doesn't matter about this place. I will find some way to get around this. "

"What? Oh, the rent situation!" Amin recalled, having completely forgotten about that during the entire story.

"...coming down from the mountains, I told myself I was ready to be on my own. I said, I could feel it...yet I'm not. I don't feel ready for any of this."

"Well, what about your mother?" asked Amin with a smile. "I'm sure she'd be happy to see you standing on your own."

Helada lowered his head slightly. "Yes...perhaps she would. If she were alive today, I think she would be happy.

"Oh…. I'm sorry, I didn't know…" Amin apologized, immediately feeling horrible.

"No it's fine." said Helada, exhaling quietly. "...she passed away peacefully. I was there to make sure that she didn't suffer. She was tough, like Gem. I made her a promise that I would use my new powers for good and to never let anger take control of me. What I did at the mall, I did to protect you like I would for anyone that needs my help. No one should have to suffer like I did."

Amin smiled. "You're a noble sort of guy, huh? I like that. You know we could actually use someone like you on our team."

Helada shook his head. "Me? No...I don't think I'd be comfortable working on a team with such advanced technology. There's so much going on as it-"

A beep from Amin's badge interrupted Helada, and Amin flipped it open. "What's up Evan?"

"Amin, please tell me you know where our subzero companion is located!" Evan said frantically, which worried the fox instantly.

"Yeah… What's going on?" he asked.

"We just got a message for him. You'll really want to see this," the otter replied. The projector showed an unconscious and bound Gemini, along with the words, "COME AND PLAY ON THE LAKE!"

Amin was up in arms in an instant. "Where the hell is Dakoda?!" he demanded.

"I've been unable to locate our commander," Evan admitted. "My best guess is that he has possibly been detained along with Gemini. It's the only logical conclusion, since they were out on patrol together when they disappeared."

"...Fillion." said Helada quietly.

"What?" Amin asked.

"That HAS to be Fillion." said Helada. "Pathos and Terrence are in custody, that only leaves Fillion. For whatever reason, he has always despised me for my skills."

Growling, Amin turned back to Evan. "Do we have some coordinates?"

"The last place their badges location transmitted from was by a chemical warehouse." replied Evan.

"Got it. On my way," Amin said, shutting his badge. He turned to Helada. "That message was clearly aimed at you… I daresay it's a trap." He smirked. "And we don't want to be rude and ignore an invitation to play with your old friend, now do we?"

"...no. I wouldn't say so." said Helada. "You need my help?"

"Fillion will probably be expecting us. I say let's give him exactly what he wants. I have an idea…"

~!~!~!~

Amin and Helada approached the warehouse, weapons at the ready. Amin entered the dark doorway first, keeping his crossbow aimed in front of him. Seeing it was all clear, he signaled Helada to follow him in. They constantly scanned around for anything, but seeing very little, they slowly lowered their guard.

"Alright, let's see what we can find around here. Maybe there's some sort of hint about where they have Gem," Amin said.

"I don't see the point of looking for clues when I can just tell you!" came a mocking voice from up above them.

A bright spotlight shone on the pair, and lights came on all around them, illuminating the warehouse, and showing Fillion standing on a railing above them, holding a still-unconscious Gemini over the edge. They were just high enough that a fall at the wrong angle would kill her, and Fillion was holding her in just the right way to make that point obvious. Helada clenched his fists and they glowed blue threateningly, but Fillion shook his head at him.

"Ah-ah, don't do anything stupid now," he warned. "Give me the smallest excuse and I will drop her." Helada lowered his fists, and Amin lowered his crossbow. "Now there's the good boys." He glared at Helada. "I have a long score to settle with you, frosty-"

"Then let's settle this!" said a voice from one of the railing.

Fillion turned and received a blast of ice in the face to knock him back, dropping Gemini. Amin rushed in quickly and jumped up, stopping her fall. As Fillion got back up, he saw Helada approaching him on the walkway.

"Leave them out of this, Fillion." said Helada. "This is between you and me."

Amin smirked, and the Helada that had been standing with him pixelated and dissolved. The plan had worked perfectly. Using his badge's holo-projector, he had created an illusion of Helada while the real one had snuck in the back way to find Dakoda, who was currently dashing out after Helada with a very angry look on his face.

Fillion growled and shook his head. "I don't get what the hell makes you think you can be some kind of hero, Helada. You tried being a hero back at the academy and look what it did and what I did to you."

"It is far better than the alternative that I'm looking at right now." said Helada, fists glowing blue with energy.

Fillion chuckled to himself and put his hands in his hoody pockets. "Oh if you weren't so naive, it'd be amusing...you get two of my friends apprehended, you stick your nose in business it sure as hell doesn't belong to, and you have to go and get back up to fight your battles. Well...two can play at that game."

"I don't like the sound of that…" Amin muttered, drawing his crossbow again and holding Gem protectively.

Fillion pressed a button on a device hidden from view in his hoody pocket. A light turned on on the other side of the warehouse on, to everyone's surprise, a missile launcher was revealed that soon began to power up and turn on. At the same time, two security drones began to power up in the corners and began to stalk Gem, Dakoda, and Amin.

"You coward!" Amin yelled at him. He began to shake Gem gently but urgently. "Gem, come on… we need some help here."

"You aren't gonna be getting any soon. In just 10 minutes, your little HQ is gonna go BOOM BOOM, bye bye!" laughed Fillion.

Dakoda and Amin got Gem to a safe area and brought out their weapons, Amin brought out his pistol and Dakoda extended his hand calmly, moving his other hand through the air to create fire. A sword made from fire materialized into Dakoda's hand and he wielded the dark grey and red blade, getting into a stance. Dakoda watched one of the drones, observing it's bulky torso and loaded guns on the wrists and shoulders. He noted the legs only consisted of one rolling wheel connected to the torso so he smirked, flipping his blade in his hand, ready to strike. Amin looked to Dakoda and the two nodded, both charging into action. The blue drone raised up it's arm and began firing at Dakoda in rapid bursts with the wolf running through one of the aisles as cover. He ducked as blaster fire rocketed around him until he got a good shot and blasted the drone in the face with a fireball. The blast disoriented the drone but when Dakoda rushed in for a strike, he was clocked in the face by the drone's other hand.

Dakoda skidded back and noticed there was some form of force shield protecting the front of the drone. Dakoda thought for a moment before charging in again and rolling under the arm that tried to take the wolf's head off. Ending up behind the drone, Dakoda began slashing into it several times, disabling the force field on the front. With a series of precise slashes, the torso was disconnected from the legs and Dakoda stabbed the drone straight through the back and out the chest. The drone fell face first onto the ground and Dakoda stabbed the drone through the head to permanently shut it down.

"Next time get your bots from somewhere that's FINISHED fixing the bugs!" said Dakoda, putting his sword on his shoulder and rushing over to help Amin.

Amin had chosen to go for higher ground and steered the drone's attacks away from the missile launcher. He used his speed to his advantage and shot a few arrows at the drone but nothing could get through the force field. He jumped and grabbed onto one of the lower walkways, using it like a jungle gym. He landed on one of the shelves and forced it down on the drone, pinning it down briefly. With the drone pinned on it's front, Amin ripped open the back to try and get at the wiring but the drone was able to get up and knock Amin onto the floor. Dakoda raced over and slashed into the front of the drone, buying Amin some time to charge up one of his arrow's. Dakoda wrestled with the drone and turned it around and Amin shot a well placed arrow right into wiring, causing it to short circuit and drop to the ground. Amin panted and gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks...I totally had him though." said Amin with a light smirk.

Dakoda chuckled and walked past him, patting his shoulder. "Sure. We got bigger problems though."

Amin nodded and joined Dakoda at the missile launcher. Meanwhile, Helada was holding his own against Fillion, the two block one another's moves on the walkways high in the warehouse. Fillion tried gaining the upper hand with an uppercut to stun Helada and grabbed the fox, trying to throw him over the edge. Helada clung to the rail and grabbed Fillion's wrist, trying to freeze it to the rail. Fillion was quick to counter and leapt up, hitting a hard kick to knock Helada back.

"How the hell did you survive!?" yelled FIllion in frustration. "You should be buried in that lake where no one can EVER find you!"

"What is your obsession with me?!" said Helada, blocking Fillion's strikes and locking up with him. "I never did ANYTHING wrong to you! What gave you the right to commit murder?!"

"Because I'M supposed to be the best, you little runt!" A low growl came from the grey fox. "It was ALWAYS about you! I was Mrs Feirca's favorite till you showed up! And then you just come waltzing in like a little blind IDIOT and everyone gives you fucking sympathy because you're blind! You think that makes you special!? I worked my ASS off to get where I am and you just take my spot like some privileged little brat!"

"So that's what this is all about: Jealousy. Because I'm blind you think it's perfectly okay to kill me because I'm trying to learn something that that could help me!?"

FIllion scoffed as he struggled against Helada. "Those powers were supposed to be mine!"

Helada broke the hold between them and made a martial arts stance, leaping up and holding onto the railings, driving both his feet into Fillion's chest with added momentum to send him skidding onto the second floor. Helada decided to switch up his offense and grabbed Fillion's arm, twisting it and hitting two kicks to his torso and a third right to the back of his head. Fillion got to one knee and Helada hit a few more kicks but his fourth kick was block and he was picked up and slammed right down to the ground. Fillion jumped on Helada and hit vicious punches to his face, getting off and forcing Helada to stand. Fillion used his own martial arts training and hit a few chops onto Helada's chest, grabbing the ice fox and getting him into an armbar. Helada struggled as Fillion hit hard elbows onto his trapped arm. Helada was able to escape and sent a charging Fillion right into a shelf with beakers full of liquids. The grey fox fell onto the ground as the shelf itself collapsed onto Fillion. He screamed out as the liquids splashed on him and got on his face.

"RGGAHHH!" he yelled out, struggling to get out from the shelf. "YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU WERE STILL DEAD, FREAK!"

Helada didn't make any sudden moves and watched as Fillion charged blindly at him. On instinct, he moved forward and bent his body down slightly, flipping Fillion into the air. Helada hadn't noticed though that directly below them were two transformers (active after the two drones had fired upon it). Fillion grabbed onto the railing and hung on, unable to see with the liquid in his eyes. Helada turned and reached down to try and get him but Fillion grabbed onto him, smirking at him.

"If I gotta go down, you're going with me!" yelled FIllion.

Helada quickly tried to freeze Fillion's hands to the railing but Fillion failed and ended up scratching as the air as he dropped right between the two transformers. He howled out in pain as the electricity between them sent a large discharge of energy into him. He spasmed on the ground from all the electricity being conducted into him, his screams eventually dying out as he laid on the ground, not moving. Helada panted quietly, having seen what had just happened and shaking his head in shame. He turned his head and noticed Amin and Dakoda struggling to deactivate the launcher. Helada joined the two down on the main floor.

"Damnit!" yelled Amin, typing away furiously on the keyboard. "I used to be able to hack these things in my sleep!"

"We get into these situations FAR too often." said Dakoda, shaking his head and then noticing Helada. "Where's FIllion?"

"Out of action." said Helada quietly, looking at the launcher . "Can this thing be stopped?"

"Evan's trying to break through the firewalls while I try to shut it down." said Amin, looking up to Helada.

"Perhaps I can buy you some time then." said the fox, running to the side. "I don't know if this will work but let's see."

The clock on the missile launcher's computer screen drew closer to zero but Helada, raising both his palms, fired off a steady stream of ice onto the launcher at key points, freezing the launcher. THe timer began to glitch which allowed Amin to get through the last firewall. Helada jumped onto the launcher and poured an ice beam down each of the holes, making the machine power down. Amin looked up to Helada and nodded.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" said Amin, jumping up a bit in excitement. "Easy peasy!"

"...too easy." said Dakoda, crossing his arms. "It's always distractions and retreats with these guys."

"Hey, just because they know some tricks, it only means they're making their sentences MUCH longer." said Amin, looking to Helada. "Great job."

Helada nodded lightly and looked over to the two transformers, unaware that Fillion's body was no longer there…

~!~!~!~

Once the missile launcher had been returned, Helada had been invited back to the AGP HQ for a debriefing but instead of leaving when it was finished, Helada decided to go up to the observatory and take in the sight, listening to some light music so he could see the cityscape. He hummed quietly as he looked down at a picture from his wallet, a picture of him and an older female arctic fox one would guess to be his mother. He flipped to the next picture and it showed him and Gemini, in traditional martial arts outfits, with the two of them close together with smiles on their faces, real smiles. When he heard the sound of a ding from the elevator near the back of the room, he turned his head and waited for the person to approach. There was silence as the footsteps stopped next to Helada.

"...is that really her?" said a voice, belonging to that of Dakoda. He chuckled lightly. "I don't think I've EVER seen her smile like that."

"It wasn't easy to convince her." said Helada with a light chuckle, looking out to the city. "...she seems so different now. Everything about this city seems different. I remember coming here once for a weekend. That was years ago though but everything just feels different. New sounds, new smells, everything."

"Amin tells me that you can see through sonar. What do you see right now?" asked Dakoda curiously.

"The outline of the city. Everything is gray. I can't make out the details of everything but I can see well enough."

Dakoda nodded. "You didn't have to come back and help us. Any sane person would have left this kind of business to us yet something tells me this one was personal for you."

Helada nodded. "Yes...it was. I did not want to have to fight him with so much at stake and when he fell over the railing onto those machines...he tried to take me with him. I tried to save him but I-..."

Dakoda put a hand on Helada's shoulder. "...saving someone, no matter who they are, is important. The fact that you tried says a lot Helada. I know for one thing that you wont have to worry about those three bullies anymore. It's safe to say today's a new start for you."

"A new start where?" asked the ice fox. "I have no home now. What good is a blind fox with ice powers in this city?"

"Well, for one thing, he would fit in very nicely in the AGP. Amin told me what had happened so I'd like to offer you a room in one of the Agent dorm's AND a spot on my team."

Helada turned to look at Dakoda, tilting his head. "I told Amin that-"

"I know, technology isn't your thing. I totally understand that, it was hard for me to adjust too." said the wolf with a light smile. "But this place can help those in need and put those who don't know where they're going onto a path that can lead to a much more exciting life."

"And I take it what happened today was..."

"Just the tip of the iceberg, pardon my pun."

Helada chuckled lightly and observed him, noting the red glow around his figure. "...you've made sacrifices too. I can't imagine the things you've been through to make your aura so..."

"...so what?" asked the wolf curiously, arching an eyebrow.

"Mysterious. And that's a mystery I dare not pry at until I properly get to know you." Helada extended his hand to Dakoda. "If you want my help, you certainly have it. I will gladly take your offer to stay here but if I may work at my own pace? I want to get a feel for this place before I make a decision, alright?"

Dakoda nodded and shook Helada's hand firmly, smiling. "Take as long as you need. I have a good feeling you're going to like it here."


	3. Guilty?

**ALPHA GALAXY PATROL: CALL TO ACTION**  
**EPISODE 3: GUILTY?**  
**WRITTEN BY ZAK KAYES AND KATHRINE HAWKINS**

One can only take so many nightmares before they begin to wonder if they will ever stop. For Dakoda, like so many tortured souls, the nightmares recurred and they recurred in similar patterns. Dakoda had fallen asleep but soon awoke on the cold tile floor of a hospital. The temperature of the floor against Dakoda's cheek made him arch his face off the floor, eyes opening to take in the floor below. He was in that place again, that spot where he never wanted to be...locked straight up in that familiar hellhole...the asylum. It was the same dream for him, over and over, and the fear was as real as all the other times.

Slowly, the wolf got to his feet but struggled to do so, feeling weak. He shook his head so to get rid of any dizziness and rubbed the top of his head gently, eyes wandering left and right to observe his surroundings. The hallway was dimly lit, the fluorescent lights flickering here and there. The halfways looked like they had just survived a raging fire. Dakoda slowly began to walk down one of the hallways, ignoring whispers here and there of what sounded like his own voice. As he paused in one of the corridors, he turned his head suddenly and ducked on instinct, watching a stun bolt fly past him. He turned to see three charred and disfigured hospital workers slowly advancing on him with stun guns at the ready.

"Of course...always you three." said Dakoda quietly, getting into a stance.

Dakoda was about to charge in to fight but for once, the three workers had the jump on him by shooting their stun bolts at the same time. Dakoda tried to dodge them but one got him in the shoulder. He grunted in pain as he felt the electricity surge through him. The three workers pounced on Dakoda and pinned him down, putting two more stun bolts into him to try and take him down. Despite having a sense of heightened strength, the bolts drained Dakoda quickly and he found himself almost immediately put into a straight jacket. He struggled against the jacket that had magically placed itself onto his body and looked up to see a german shepard approach him with a syringe in his hand. Dakoda squirmed against the workers but there was little time to do anything once he felt the needle get into his system. he screamed out in the dream and suddenly bolted right up when he felt the dream end.

"...god damn it..." mumbled Dakoda.

The wolf slowly laid back down, panting in a bit of a cold sweat. He turned his head ever so slightly to notice Humboldt sleeping peacefully next to him. Bolt had always allowed Dakoda to stay over at his home on his days off and was grateful the hard working wolf was willing to take time to relax with his best friend. With a light sigh, he touched Bolt's head and slipped out of bed, putting on a white tanktop along with his black briefs. Dakoda went into the kitchen and looked around for the things he needed to make coffee. turning on the radio to a channel filled with light jazz music. He put his hands on the counter and twitched slightly, trying to erase the nightmare from his head.

Bolt had woken up a little while after Dakoda had, stretching out and noticing that Dakoda wasn't there. He sighed quietly before getting up, only wearing pink and black briefs. He lazily made his way out of his room and poked his head out through the doorway to see Dakoda in the kitchen. Bolt sighed quietly in relief, happy to know his best friend hadn't just up and left like he usually did. He entered into the kitchen quietly and cleared his throat to get Dakoda's attention.

"Morning, hun." smiled Bolt, happy to see Dakoda turn and look at him.

"...morning." The wolf flashed a light smile, though it seemed forced.

Bolt walked beside him and looked at the coffee and then the radio. "You know...before, you used to just dart whenever you had nightmares."

"I'm fine, Bolt."

The dingo frowned. "BS, Koda. I've known you for how long? You're usually energetic in the mornings...that you're here."

Dakoda closed his eyes and lightly gripped the counter. The tattoo's on his arms glowed faintly, enough so if you turned out the lights they would glow in the dark. Bolt reached out and touched his shoulder gently, admiring the warm aura that Dakoda almost always showed.

"It's...nothing I haven't handled before." said Dakoda. "I just need to stop them from happening. There's nothing wrong with me."

"Nothing wrong with you?" The dingo tilted his head. "Well I never said anything about that. Nightmares happen to all of us. Even to the big guys like you. That doesn't make you weak though, Koda. It means that you're not invincible. You know you can talk to me, right? I'm your friend, and I care about you, you know? More then 3/4 of my friends. Talk to me."

The glow on Dakoda's tattoos slowly died down and he took in a deep breath, exhaling and finding some form of inner balance.

"I know." he said. "It's just...tough."

"Well if it wasn't, life would be easy and far too boring." said Bolt with that charming smile on his muzzle. "I won't tell a soul, I swear it on my grandmother's grave. You don't have to keep it all bottled up, man. Maybe fi you talk about it, you'll feel a little better?"

"Talk about what? I'm trying to forget all the things that happened to me, NOT let them control me. It's bits and pieces every other night of what happened to me. Believe me, if I could put all this together to tell someone...it'd be you. You're the only person I can trust and be comfortable telling even half of who I used to be to."

The dingo nodded and hugged Dakoda tightly. "See? I told you that you can trust me. Whenever you can tell me, I'm right here to listen. In the meanwhile though, let's do something to get ya to smile!"

Dakoda nodded. "Right. I've got coffee-"

They were both interrupted when a familiar beeping sound came from the kitchen table, from Dakoda's Beta Badge. Dakoda reached for it but Bolt snatched it away.

"And the first step, turn that damn thing off." said Bolt, his tone becoming serious.

"But I need to-"

"Nope. YOU are gonna take a day off and I have a friend to take care of."

Dakoda blinked, finding it somehow adorable that Bolt was going to all this trouble just to get him to relax. He lightly reached his hand out for the Badge and was surprised to see Bolt growl. The wolf gave him a reassuring smile and took the badge, opening it up, and putting in a short little text.

"Taking day off, not at a hundred percent. Need to clear head, please forward assignments to Gemini." said Dakoda, reading out the text. "Better?"

Bolt nodded and took the Badge, opening a drawing, placing the Badge in it, and closing it. There was silence before the dingo flashed that familiar grin. "Much better! Today is officially vegetable day! You are going to learn the definition of chillin' out and doing nothing."

"You really think that's a good idea?" chuckled Dakoda, crossing his arms as he listened to the sound of coffee brewing and music playing.

"Oh yes. In all the time I've known you, you always are on the go, training or headed out to an assignment. The most time you've spent relaxing has been you stopping in the car for maybe an hour and a half."

"And all the time I've known you I've spent time at Jengas during the nights and a few hours or so before going out. I have to-"

Bolt rolled his eyes and leaned up, kissing him suddenly to silence the wolf. Dakoda grunted in confusion but sighed and lightly kissed him back, a big arm going around waist. When he broke it off, Bolt licked his nose softly and smiled at him.

"Let's just relax today, okay?" said Bolt. "Cook something together, watch Netflix, hell maybe even get out and just wander around. NOT as Agent Weston, Alpha Galaxy Patrol Red Agent...but just as Dakoda. Please?"

Dakoda thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. You win."

~!~!~!~

Once Gemini had gotten the text, she was tempted to text him back asking what the problem was...but decided it wasn't her business. She had gotten an alert on her Badge about another robbery that had happened at one of the banks in Payton City and headed straight over to said bank as fast as she could. When she arrived, police were already in the area, surveying and scanning the area. From the outside, it had looked like nothing had happened. With the ambulance, fire engine, and spectators watching from behind police tape...one would assume different though. Gemini walked up to one of the officers and flashed her badge.

"What do you have?" she asked.

"Tech scans show that the power to the bank went out about 20 minutes ago." said the officer. "So when it came back on, the alarms went off almost immediately because of the protocol. By the time we got in there, people were on the ground starting to wake up and the vault inside had been almost completely emptied."

"And I'm going to take a guess we don't have any security footage either?" asked the vixen.

The officer shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. All we do now is that the bank's missing some security deposit boxes and a LOT of gold. The new guy's inside checking things out."

Gemini blinked. "...new guy?" She headed inside without waiting for a response to search for this so-called new guy that she had heard nothing about, grumbling the entire way.

"Convenient day for you to take off, Dakoda," she groused. "You brought in someone new without a word to me? I am your partner. The least you can do is keep me up to date." She reached the vault and upon seeing the size of it, realized just how much gold it must have contained. "How the hell did they get away with all that gold in just 20 minutes?"

"Simple! They're highly skilled!" said a voice.

Gemini turned. and noticed that the voice belonged to that of a slim black cat. He wore an orange, short sleeved sweatshirt over his bare chest with black baggy jeans going down to his black and orange sneakers. He wore big hipster glasses that covered his blue eyes and two belts that hung from his jeans like someone out of a Final Fantasy game. He smirked slightly as he rested a hand on his hip.

"REALLY skilled I should say." continued the cat, his tone confident and a little bit arrogant. "Same tactics when they first attacked the Terran National Bank. Now they're going to the Verdant, right here. I say they because one person couldn't have pulled this off. Unexplainable power outage, my ass. It was planned. Not just planned from the outside either, right here in the lion's den. It's clever...but predictable."

"...I see. And you are?" Gem said flatly.

"Ah ah, save the questions for later missy. I don't like my flow being interrupted, kay?"

Gemini frowned and reached for her weapon. "I suggest you answer if you don't wish to be arrested for-" She was silenced though when the black cat raised his hand up to silence her, watching him walk into the middle of the room.

"...rolling ceiling, marble floor equals good acoustics. Historic, only four banks like this and only these four contain gold. Gold, clever, but not exactly the hottest items on the black market. Gold's just as valuable as platinum or silver on other planets. They struck at the Terran, they struck the Verdant, meaning the Iris and Leondan are the next two. Come on, that's too easy. Not even I would make mistakes-...ah, that narrows down who might have done it. So...they were here, in this general area. Chaos energy readings are strong here so it's Chaos based items they used. They didn't blow anything up, they didn't kill anyone, everyone was knocked out for 20 minutes...two, no three man job. One to kill the power, the other two already inside. They cut the power giving them exactly 20 minutes to go through their plan. The two thieves inside, they used low frequency Chaos based weapons to knock everyone out and they headed straight for the vault, wasting no time. The guards couldn't do anything, no power to trip the alarms, not until after. They were already prepared the thieves so they went for the vault, grabbed the gold, grabbed three security boxes, why security boxes though that's funny, and hightailed it out of there through the maintenance way. So by the time 20 minutes was up, which it only took them 15 minutes and 47 seconds to accomplish, that just gave them under 5 minutes to escape and by that point they were already 5 blocks away."

"..." Gem just stared, quite sufficiently stunned, though her expression still gave away nothing. After a minute, she finally said, "Who are you?"

The black cat turned and looked to her, pulling out a black and orange Beta Badge. "Rusty Lance, Alpha Galaxy Patrol Orange Agent, at your service."

"Oh, the new guy," Gem replied plainly. "Tell me, how exactly did you discern that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "I mean there's no other way it could have been done. Not the way I would have done it, I'm almost SLIGHTLY disappointed. Ah well though."

Her ear twitched from irritation, but she overlooked that for something else. "What you would have done?" she asked. "Clarify that."

Rusty chuckled to himself. "Well, to put in the simplest way possible: It takes a thief to know a thief."

"..."

Rusty whistled to one of the officers and motioned for him to come over. "Alright, as odd as this is going going to sound, they're gonna attack the Iris bank next. Chronologically, and rather stupidly, that's their next move. HOWEVER I don't want you to tell them OR alert them. Let them steal from there, I have an idea I will relay to Evan. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" the officer replied, dashing off.

The black smiled and stood up straight. "Sir, I like that. Way better then having to call others sir. This is a big improvement."

"Who do you think you are?" Gem demanded. "Agent or not, you can't just come in and start giving orders in such a manner without running them by your superior officer, ie myself, first."

"Well I don't see you doing your job so I made it easier and did it for you," answered the cat, giving a rather snarky smile to say the least. "No need to thank me. I'm probably the best chance you have at even catching these guys."

Her glare became very intense. "You have a very high opinion of yourself."

"And you have unresolved anger issues stemming from possible emotional detachment at a young age." said Rusty. "Which, I guess, is understandable-"

He never even saw it coming. In the next second, Gemini had gotten behind him and struck him on the back of the neck, flooring him in one move.

Rusty grunted as he landed on the ground, staying still for a moment. "...though it wouldn't hurt to probably see a therapist about that."

Picking him up by the scruff of his neck, Gemini dragged him downstairs and all but threw him into the back of her car. "You are under arrest," she said simply, climbing into the driver's seat and heading for HQ.

~!~!~!~

Helada lay on the bed, just kind of thinking. He had been living in the AGP Blue Agent dorm for around a week, but it still felt fairly surreal to him, not to mention a little uncomfortable. He was surrounded by high tech day in and day out now, and he did not like it one bit. On top of being in a uncomfortable situation, Gemini had barely acknowledged him at all. In fact, she acted like she didn't even remember him. All these thoughts he mulled over with as he made himself some tea, drawing some leaves from a bag on the counter that he put into the pot. He sighed quietly as he looked around, listening to some relaxing, spiritual music. This way, he at least felt more comfortable with the surroundings.

_It's already been one week since I've been here and still I feel like such a stranger to everyone. Still a "freak" in someway to these people that I try to help. They don't seem to want to interact with me and already I've met one or to people who thought it would be funny to take my cane or trip me. I haven't fought back or done anything in retaliation because I see no reason to sink to their level. But what saddens me the most is that these situations eerily echo the past and Gemini is there both times...except she does nothing. Rather, she doesn't seem to notice at all. Have I done something wrong? When Gemini and I were in school, she would give me a key phrase to fight back: give them hell. Here, not a word. She looked at me, just once, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking or feeling. Maybe it's for the best if-_

The sound of the boiling water made him clench one of his ears as he opened the pot and took it off the heater, shaking his head lightly. As he was ready to pour himself a cup, he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey, Helada? It's me," came Amin's voice.

"Come in." replied the arctic fox.

Amin opened the door and gave Helada a smile. "How ya holdin' up here?" he asked.

"Well enough I suppose," Helada replied. "I was just making some tea, would you like a cup?"

"Yeah sure," Amin agreed.

Helada nodded and went to pour the both of them a cup, giving Amin one cup for him and one cup for himself. "This is a special kind of tea from the mountains. They picked certain leaves from the trees that added a mint taste to the overall flavor."

"Sweet! I love minty things," Amin said, sipping it and smiling. "Mmm…. this is almost as good as my boyfriend makes his tea."

Helada blinked. "Boyfriend?"

"Yeah, boyfriend," Amin repeated. "He's probably the sexiest wolf in all of Ganthio." He grinned, obviously thinking of this boyfriend of his.

Helada quietly sipped his tea for the moment before looking to Amin. "I'm not sure I understand. Males can be with other males? Up in the mountains, that sort of custom is forbidden."

"Forbidden?" Amin asked, clearly confused. "Why should it be forbidden? Love is love, no matter what the gender. Now sure, there are always gonna be judgemental assholes who are going to point fingers and say, 'That's wrong!' Even so, it's still no one else's place to tell someone who to love and how to love them. At least that's what I believe."

The fox nodded. "My mother has taught me to be tolerant of one's beliefs. I see nothing wrong with it, I was only confused. Is the tea good for you?"

Amin chuckled. "You're not very smooth, are you?"

"Smooth how?"

"If you want to ask something, go ahead and ask," Amin assured him. "I don't know if you've caught on, Helada, but I consider you a friend, and I have no problems talking with you about things like this."

Helada nodded and lowered his head slightly. "...it's nice to know I have ONE friend here at least."

"Is there something wrong?" Amin asked.

He paused briefly before shaking his head. "I'll just say that there are some ignorant people around here. It's nothing I can't handle. I haven't made a lot of friends here rather though, I've made some enemies."

"...I see," Amin responded with a frown. He made a mental note to look into this later. "I wish I could do something about this now, but unfortunately, I did come here for a reason."

"Oh? Did someone try to lie and say I did something that I didn't?" Helada asked, a slight frown on his face.

"What? No!" Amin said. "And even if they did, I wouldn't believe a word of it. No, I came here to ask your help with something."

"How can I help?" he asked, not caring what the problem was.

"Well, we have a suspect in custody, and questioning her has been…difficult to say the least. I can't get a beat on this girl, but I have a feeling you could with your ability to read auras."

Helada tilted his head. "...I see. I think I can help. Let's go."

Once the two finished their tea, Helada and Amin made their way over towards the interrogation room. They opened the door and Amin stepped through first, with a folder under his arm, followed by Helada. In the chair, handcuffed for the moment, was a cyan blue hedgehog with a black spiky collar on one of her spines. She had a pair of baggy beat up jeans, a rather dingy-looking sweater, and what looked like three layers of coats, with two lighter ones underneath a faded long coat. The hedgehog looked up towards the two with a look of concern, watching them.

"...can you please remove these cuffs?" she asked, quietly. "T-they're hurting my wrists."

"I'm sincerely sorry, but I'm not allowed to do that just yet, not under the current circumstances," Amin apologized, sounding like he meant it.

"I already-" she paused and looked up to Helada. "Is he an Agent too, mister?"

"Of sorts," Amin answered. "Now if you please, you are the one being asked questions here."

She nodded and took in a deep breath. "...a-alright, ask away."

"I'm Agent Amin Kodanda, this is my friend Helada. Let's start with your name and occupation," Amin asked.

The hedgehog nodded. "Cyanide. Cyanide J. Furmen. I'm not employed anywhere, I've been living in Payton City on my own for almost 9 months."

Amin nodded, putting the folder on the table, and opening it. "An hour ago, you were found at the scene of the crime of a triple homicide." He brought out three pictures of the crime scene with pictures of the construction worker's faces. "Do you recognize these people and are you associated with them in anyway?"

Cyanide cringed slightly at the pictures and shook her head. "N-no. I don't know these people. I swear, I didn't kill them!"

"These men were killed by bullets created from an energy source called Chaos." continued Amin. "They got their fair share of bullets through the torso and head. When I heard the commotion on the other side of the street, I was the first reporting officer on the scene. And when I entered the area, I found you in the middle of the room with the three bodies on the floor. Do you see how that looks to someone who doesn't know you?"

She said nothing at first but nodded, looking down and avoiding eye contact. "...I-I didn't kill them, I swear, I was trying to save them! There were these two lizard creatures with big guns and they killed those workers! I came over because I thought they were in trouble."

Amin nodded and heard a few beeps come from his Badge, opening it up. "Evan, I'm in the middle of an interrogation."

"Amin, I think it can wait, you're-"

"What?" said Amin, slightly annoyed.

"...you're gonna want to see this." said Evan. He pressed some buttons on his side and brought up a holographic record of Cyanide's criminal record. Cyanide gasped slightly and fidgeted nervously.

Amin took a few minutes to read over this new information, paused, then re-read it before turning towards the hedgehog. "By your reaction, I assume you're aware what this means for you, right? Your record isn't exactly supporting your claims of innocence."

"Amin," said Helada. "...loosen up."

"No, not now. Not in this case," Amin said, frowning at Cyanide. "Arson, treason, battery and assault, grand theft auto, robbery, and attempted murder. I have to admit, that is one hell of an impressive resume you have here."

Cyanide's eyes widened and her wrists glowed slightly. "W-WHAT!? N-no, that's impossible! I've never done any of that! The worst I've ever done was stole a few books from my father's library! ...w-which I realize doesn't help my case. But I've never killed anyone!"

Amin took note of the glow around her wrists, but kept pressing. "This very clearly says otherwise, Ms. Furmen! Tell me the truth, right now! Why were those people killed?!"

"I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE!" she screamed out suddenly, standing up and her wrists glowed bright green. With a sudden surge of strength, she broke the handcuffs and her own eyes flashed slight green. Helada watched this but made no sudden moves as he stared at Cyanide. He looked to Amin and took his shoulder.

"...may I please speak to you, Amin?" said Helada. "Outside. Now." Amin nodded and followed him out quickly. Helada closed the door behind him and looked at him.

"She's innocent." said Helada.

"You sound very sure of that," Amin noted. "You saw that in there. That girl has Chaos abilities, and those people were killed with Chaos energy."

"But she's telling the truth. Yes, she has Chaos abilities, but she didn't kill them."

"...what did her aura tell you?" Amin asked.

"For one thing, she's scared out of her mind. The way she cringed at the crime scene photos, her shock at the criminal record, either that's good acting or genuine fear. And her aura is scared. It's clean. Troubled, but clean."

Amin considered this. He had also been taking note of her small reactions to things, and her not-so-small reactions, but as he didn't have Helada's abilities, he took the fox's words to heart. If she was really so scared, then there was no possible way that she was the guilty party. Nodding at Helada, he turned to open the door again when a loud crash resounded from the direction of the garage. Amin cringed. That could only be one person.

"Merida, please tell me that wasn't who I think it was!" he called upwards.

"If you're referring to Agent Gemini, then yes." replied the AI. "She is currently heading up towards the interrogation room with our new Agent."

Helada tilted his head. "How many Agents do we have around here?"

"Not enough, to be frank, but that's not important right now," Amin replied. "If she's coming this way, then we'd better be ready for a shit storm because it sounds like she's in a bad mood. But wait, why is she bringing the new guy in? Are they helping with this Furmen case?"

"Agent Gemini is currently working on the case involving the two most recent national bank heists." said Meridia. "I forwarded her the assignment after Agent Weston requested the day off."

"Dakoda, taking a day off?" Amin questioned. "Since when does he even know the meaning of the word relax?"

"I too found it strange." said Meridia.

Suddenly, Rusty was thrown forward, landing in a heap on the floor in front of them. Gem came storming in angrily after him moments later, fuming. She turned an accusing glare to Amin. "Someone will explain to me exactly how such a disrespectful vagrant became an Agent without my knowledge!" she demanded.

Amin took three steps backwards, hiding behind Helada. "...hey, uh, Merida, you wanna take that one?" he asked nervously.

"Agent Gemini, I would kindly request you release Agent Rhodes from your custody and allow me to explain?" asked Meridia, calmly.

"Agent Rhodes, is it?" Gem said, giving Rusty a positively toxic look. "The name you gave was Lance."

"For my own reasons." said Rusty, quietly. "...I don't go by my parent's names. Long story I don't wish to bore you about. Now let. me. go."

Helada raised an eyebrow as Gemini released him. Rusty sighed and fixed his neck, looking to Amin.

"...small world, huh Kodanda?" smirked Rusty.

Amin shook his head. "Can you go five seconds without stirring up shit?" he asked, helping him to his feet.

"Now where's the fun in that?" snickered Rusty, standing up. "I might as well clarify, I'm not an Agent FULLY yet. It's a kinda complicated sit-chi-ation we got going on here that I'll let Cortana over here explain."

Meridia paused and nodded. "Currently, Agent Rhodes is under the AGP protection. Agent Rhodes was under the employment of Lawrence Jameson, a mobster, as a freelance thief."

"You made a thief into an Agent?" asked Helada. "...doesn't that seem a little counter-productive?

"To say the least," Gem remarked, keeping her glare fixated on the black cat.

"Could be worse." said Rusty, chuckling to himself.

"There was a fallout, according to Agent Rhodes, where he stole from his own employer on one particular job." continued Meridia. "As such, he was nearly killed escaping after trying to return the stolen goods and came to the AGP in order to seek protection until these matters are resolved. However, for his protection, he's offered his, as he calls them, 'elite' skills to assist us in taking down criminals. Agent Rhodes holds a degree in criminal and forensic sciences and is the son to Markus and Kelsey Rhodes of Rhodes Consolidated, one of the companies that is giving us our funding."

Rusty rolled his eyes. "Long story short, I got into some trouble after I got tricked so I came here to fix my own mistake personally. Those two heists, it's easy enough to figure out who did this, they're my old partners: Samson and Tulio, two lizard dudes who have been using Chaos based weaponry to pull off heists. And...I've been apart of those heists as well in the past. Once I get my hands on a clean slate then-"

"Wait, did you say these were two lizards with Chaos weapons?" Amin interrupted.

"Yeah. One's a shotgun, other one's a low-frequency go-to-sleeper." explained Rusty. "Black market weapons.

Frowning, Amin turned to Helada. "Looks like our friend in there was telling the truth after all."

"Friend?" asked Rusty, looking to the interrogation room.

Before they could say anything else, the alarm suddenly went off. Amin groaned.

"What's up?" said Helada, looking to Amin.

'The Iris National Bank has been robbed." said Meridia. "All available units converge-"

"Don't bother." said Rusty, smirking slightly. "They're playing this all out like a scene from a play."

Amin looked at him then chuckled. "Still with the big brains, huh Rusty? What you got cookin' this time?"

Rusty crossed his arms, bring out his badge and opening it, bring up Evan on a holo call. "Evan! Did ya mark the gold with nanomites as I suggested?"

"Yes, I did." replied Evan. "And I am tracking the signals right now, as we speak. They are currently on the highway heading east."

Gem looked at Rusty, her ear giving a slight twitch. After a long moment, she finally said to Evan, "Notify me when it comes to a stop. We'll converge on the location."

"You won't need to." said Rusty. "They're hauling ass as fast as they can back to their little hideout and they're gonna store the gold from the past three heists right there and then when they get the fourth load, they'll hand it all over to Jameson. Come on, you guys should know this."

Gem's tail actually bristled, and Amin stepped over to Rusty. "Rusty, dude, you really want to be careful with how you phrase things around her. Gem's an ice woman most of the time, but if you heat up her temper enough, she will burn you to a crisp," he whispered. "She is no joke, seriously."

"Sociopaths are no problem for me, leave that to my two ex partners," said Rusty, whispering to him. "...to be fair, sociopath is the nicest word I can come up with.."

"I'm not bailing you out when you set her off," Amin warned. He turned back to Amin and Meridia. "We should probably ask Ms. Furmen if there's anything else she knows while we have the time. If these are the same two guys who killed those people, any and all information will be helpful."

"Later." said Rusty. "Right now, we need to get to the fourth bank and stake it out. I have a feeling my two colleagues will be getting there soon for the extra bonus very soon…"

~!~!~!~

Once Dakoda and Humboldt had gotten their share of coffee, they had decided to spend the rest of their day indoors and just relax. The wolf had tried to chill while they watched a movie together but Dakoda had a hard time trying to get situated. Noticing this, Humbodlt stopped the movie and decided to give Dakoda something he had very rarely received: a massage. With the fire wolf laying on his belly with his shirt off, Humboldt sat comfortably on Dakoda's rear and glided his fingers effortlessly along his spine, rubbing firmly to release the knots.

"Yah know..." said Humboldt. "I don't mind the scars. You've never told me how you got them though. Do they hurt?"

Dakoda shook his head and grunted from feeling the knots loosen in his body. "Mmf...I've never really been comfortable telling the story. Once was enough to me and I almost didn't become an Agent."

Bolt shook his head and smiled, leaning down to nuzle him. "Well, you know you can tell me anything alright? I get that you do a lot of training but don't you ever just slow down? I know I've asked you that before and you did slow down but now it seems like you're back to your usual self."

"And what's wrong with my usual self?"

"It's lonely. You're knotted up, tense, easily irritable? I'm just looking out for you, Koda."

Bolt sunk his hands harder into his shoulders to try and loosen him up. Dakoda shivered and laid his head on his side, closing his eyes and just letting Bolt work his magic. He grunted slightly but let out a pleasant moan afterwards.

"Humboldt...why do you still put up with me?"

Bolt shook his head as he worked on Dakoda's arms. "Because you're my best friend, Koda, and I take care of my friends. Does it need to be any simpler then that?"

Dakoda just listened to his words and kept himself relaxed. "Out of all the people in the world, you had to pick me. Well, maybe it was the other way around...I don't know. I'm not really thinking straight...kinda hard to when...well...yeah. I'm sorry, am I talking too much?"

The dingo chuckled. "Nah. Talk as much as you want. I'm open to anything you'd like."

Dakoda nodded and moaned out quietly as he felt Bolt knead his rear, going down to his legs. He sighed quietly, deciding to take a chance. "...I was a patient in a mental house for six months. Those...powers that I have...they're from an accident back in my high school. it's a lot longer story then I'd like to remember...but I can't stop having nightmares about that place and what it turned me into.."

Bolt didn't' stop massaging, he listened the entire time. "...you... you were in a mental hospital? Jeez, no wonder you have nightmares."

"The psych people at AGP say I have some form of PTSD. How they let a freak like me become an Agent still baffles me..."

"But you aren't a freak." said Bolt, rolling Dakoda over to look right at him. "You're different be sure, but that doesn't mean you're a freak. What, just because you have powers or have PTSD, you should be labeled? Dude, your powers are amazing, and you use them to save lives every single day. The PTSD isn't your fault. It's because you were traumatized, and you can't be held responsible for something like that." The dingo smiled and hugged him closely. "You're no freak. You're Agent Dakoda Weton of Alpha Galaxy Patrol, and you're the best friend I've ever had."

"...you mean that?" said Dakoda, looking into Bolt's eyes as he hugged him back.

"I mean it. You mean a lot to me, Koda, and I have never even once thought of you as a freak."

"...you have no idea what that means to me... " said Dakoda, holding Bolt closely and kissing him softly.

Bolt grinned as he laid comfortably on the wolf's chest, locking his arms around Dakoda's neck to keep the kiss going. Eventually, Dakoda broke of the kiss and licked his nose gently.

"...you sure you won't mind me just staying here today?"

"Hey, it was my idea!" said Bolt, smiling proudly.

"Good. Then you're stuck with me today.. "he grinned, getting up and stretching. "Mmff...mind getting my neck for a sec, babe-..."

"Did you just call me babe?" smirked Bolt.

"...s-slip of the tongue."

"Really now?~"

Dakoda blushed brightly and tried to sit up. "C-come on, we got more things to do today-"

Bolt grabbed Dakoda around the waist. "Aww... do we have to?"

He blinked and looked back to him, tilting his head. "...unless you have something else in mind?"

The dingo gave a mischievous smirk. "Well, it has been a while you know..."

Dakoda tilted his head but once he felt Bolt grab a hold of his rear, he grinned. The wolf turned and suddenly picked him up, hauling him to the bedroom.

"You asked for it, dingo.." smirked the wolf, looking to get the last bit of stress out of his system.

~!~!~!~

Three hours had passed since the third heist and, though it was almost 10, Rusty, Gemini, and Amin decided to stake out the Leandon Bank. Rusty stayed off to the side while Gemini and Amin casually patrolled the area.

"All clear from here." said Amin. "I got all the exits in my sights."

"Perimeter's secured in the back." said Gemini. "The maintenance area and backdoors are all locked. If they breach the area, they'll have to run through me."

"Good." said Rusty, keeping his eyes on the area. "...let's see. Same architecture as the other banks. They could use the same strategy because they're lazy or they could improvise. Corkstop the back and they have no choice but to take the front door...except…"

Rusty's eyes turned to some of the security guards and noticed each of them.

"First guard, expecting father. Too panicky." noted the cat. "Second guard, overweight, too into his job. Hot date tonight that probably won't go in his favor. Halitosis. Third guard-...and the fourth...oh guys, you make this too easy."

"What is he muttering about?" asked Gemini to Amin.

"Just let him. It helps him think." said the fox. "I think he spotted our guys-...oh you have got to be kidding me."

Amin looked down from the balcony to see that Rusty was TALKING to the two lizards dressed as security guards.

"Well well, fancy seeing you two here." Said Rusty, chuckling to himself. "Can you two be anymore obvious?"

"What the-" one of the lizards, looking down. "Well I'll be damned Tulio, if it ain't the pussycat."

Tulio chuckled to himself. "So ya had the balls to come crawling back and own up for what you did to our boss huh?"

"Far from it. I have no intention of going back to that traitor." said Rusty. "He is USING both of you and your miniscule brains can't even comprehend that he is playing you BOTH like fools. You are expendable, means to an end."

"Just like you, huh?" said Samson.

Rusty growled, clenching one of his fists. "That is NOT what I meant. You both know you're gonna get caught. Without me, you two are just following orders like two guard dogs. You NEED me."

Amin watched from the balcony in confusion. "What the hell is he doing…"

"Rusty, don't even try." said Tulio. "Ya think you're hot shit but you're just a coward, always with his foot in the back door. We don't NEED you. We can just very easily flatten you right here and now. Besides, why else would ya run? What could ya POSSIBLY have against us?"

"I'm glad you asked." Rusty grinned, feeling his badge return as he suddenly brought his Beta Badge. "AGP! You're under arrest!"

Tulio and Samson's eyes widened. They both stepped out and brought out their weapons but a skilled arrow sliced into the low frequency emitter, making it fall to the ground. While Amin rushed down to try and combat the two lizards, Rusty raced away and drew an orange pistol from his holster that held a tube of electricity before the tip. Rusty zipped and dodged the Chaos bullets as he looked for cover. Amin joined Rusty at his side as Gemini entered from the other side. She front flipped into action and charged at Samson, hitting some hard lefts and right and dodging some claw strikes. She flipped away from Tulio and fired upon them with her own blasters, forcing them to retreat through the front door. They quickly ran and turned around the sidewalk, heading to the alley with their van. Rusty, Amin, and Gemini followed them and headed for their own SUV. Rusty turned and ran the other way.

"Rusty!" yelled Amin. "Where are you going?!"

"I have a plan!" he yelled. "You get them to go onto the bridge! I'll handle the rest!"

Amin watched as Rusty made his way over to his motorcycle and hopped onto it, slipping on his helmet and revving the engine. He pressed some buttons on the screen of the cycle and turned around, driving down past the interstate to head to the bridge. Gemini and Amin had locked onto the van and watched as it tried to go straight for the highway but the lights suddenly began to change, seemingly connecting a route for the lizards towards the bridge. With the lizards too stupid to take a chance and break the rules, they foolishly followed the route heading to the bridge. The two Agents kept their lock right on the thieves as they made their way onto the bridge, swerving past traffic to gain a lead. The two lizards tried shooting at the SUV to try and distract it and though it did work, the SUV wasn't slowing down...and neither was Rusty. Rusty had caught up with the group and was able to move swiftly through traffic, catching up to the two lizards. He brought out his shock pistol and grinned, shooting several blasts at the lizard's truck to try and short it out. And one surprise shot found it's mark, suddenly shutting down the engine. The lizards screamed as the car swerved and suddenly started barrel rolling as the tires failed.

"RUSTY!" yelled Amin, in fear of his friend.

The SUV slowed down as did Rusty's cycle as Rusty stopped a few feet from the lizard's truck. Tulio and Samson slowly pulled themselves out from the were surprise to see Rusty there with his shock pistol at the ready.

"I got informed you tried to pin the deaths of three construction workers on a little hedgehog."

"B-bullshit!" yelled Tulio. "Who the hell cares about some stupid workers?!"

" I do." said Rusty, having his badge activate to record the audio. "And I'm gonna pump you two full of so much electricity, you won't even be able to breathe without it hurting unless you tell me who killed those workers!"

"A-alright!" yelled Samson. "IT WAS TULIO'S IDEA, HE DID IT!"

"TULIO, WHAT THE HELL!? growled Samson.

"I didn't want to have to do it but he made me do it! Take him instead!"

Rusty watched the two of them and lowered his pistol, looking back to Amin and Gemini. He looked back to Tulio and Samson, putting away his pistol and taking out some handcuffs, cuffing them. These two were going into custody, whether they liked it or not.

~!~!~!~

Cyanide had been brought back into the interrogation room after Rusty had successfully brought in Samson and Tulio and personally chewed them both out for what they had done, sending them right down to the containment cells. When Cyanide had brought back, Rusty entered a few minutes later in the same clothes he had worn all day. He plopped down in the seat across from him, looking to her. Cyanide tilted her head but smiled faintly.

"I can't thank you enough for this, whoever you are." she started. "I wasn't expecting those guys to admit what they did so easily. So you must have some pretty cool mind controlling powers!"

Rusty chuckled. "Ah, not quite. I'm Rusty Lance, Alpha Galaxy Patrol Orange Agent. You can just call me Rusty though."

"Alright, Rusty. Though you don't LOOK like an Agent to me though. Aren't they supposed to wear fancy uniforms?"

"Usually. But I'm not one just yet. I was kinda just passing through and doing one job but...I don't think my job's over just yet. Something still doesn't add up. More specifically, your record."

Cyanide sighed. "That record shouldn't even exist. I've never killed anyone and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon."

"Exactly." said Rusty. "...I can tell just by looking at your clothes that you haven't done any of those things on your record."

"W-wait, how?"

"I read people." said Rusty, playing with his glasses. "It's...surprisingly easy once you figure out the noticeable things that others don't notice. It's called deduction."

"Deduc...tion?" asked Cy, tilting her head.

"Your criminal record says you've committed arson, grand theft, attempted murder, treason, among other things but you're not the type to just run away. Your clothes, baggy, inconspicuous, you'd favor a disguise so you don't have to face confrontation so that suggests paranoia. Paranoia shows through your attitude and mannerisms, the way you fidget, the way you're constantly looking around, you're always expecting a fight and if so, you don't want to have to fight but you're a survivor. Your powers stem from genetic research and you're used to protection and someone being right there to talk to you and support you. Male figures...two, at the least."

"...h-how do you know about my brothers?" she asked.

"Sometimes you have to guess." continued Rusty. "You don't want to have to use your powers but when you need to, you will fight like your life depends on it. But you couldn't have done anything on your record. And you know why? Because you have the eyes of a woman who cringes at the sight of blood and while you're good with knives, you've never killed. You have the eyes of a woman who is genuinely scared. And a woman scared can never kill."

Cyanide listened to his words and looked down slightly. She nodded slightly and sighed. "...you're right. I-I don't know how you know all that but you're right."

"Someone manufactured a false record for you." said Rusty. "Someone had a vendetta against you to try and frame you for some odd reason. And I can promise you right now, I will find who did this and I will bring them to justice."

Cyanide nodded and watched Rusty stand up, extending his hand to her and lightly gripping it, shaking it.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"...whatever it takes to give you and I...a clean slate."

~!~!~!~

Jaigon stood a short distance from a hospital bed in the warehouse hideout, frowning at its inhabitant. Said inhabitant tossed and turned, moaning and occasionally screaming in pain. A monitor sat near the coyote, the screen staticy, but the rest of the system operational.

"I still think you're off your rocker, making me bring that freak here," Jaigon said. "The fool failed us spectacularly, and you usually have failures offed anyway. Why does this whack job get to keep the on, so to speak?"

_Because this failure has turned himself into a fantastic opportunity, _his cohort replied.

"Yeah, that's if he lives," Jaigon snorted skeptically. He watched as red sparks started flying from the bed. "Aw crap, here we go again."

The sparks soon turned into little red static bolts, then became massive bolts of red lightning, arcing and sparking for several minutes before it died down. Jaigon shook his head. "And this you think is a fantastic opportunity?"

_I know it is, you feeble-minded fool, came the reply. He will survive this. His anger is potent, and that anger feeds his will to live. What you are seeing, my friend, is the creation of a grand tool that will be of great importance in the future._

Jaigon started to roll his eyes before a solid stream of electricity shot straight upwards from the bed, blasting and nearly destroying the ceiling above it. Blinking, Jaigon suddenly smirked darkly. "Hm… you may just be onto something here…"

~!~!~!~

Helada yawned and stretched as he headed down the halls towards his dorm. He really needed a cup of tea, possibly an entire pot of it after today. Even so, he had to admit it had felt good to use the gifts he'd been given to help others. It was all he wanted to do with his power after all.

His ear twitched as he heard a couple pairs of footsteps coming down the hall. He frowned. It was the same idiots that had been hassling him, a pair of cadets who thought they could get away with giving him a hard time. However, since they were only cadets, Helada wasn't sure if it was permissible to do anything, therefore he hadn't so far. Instead, he tried to avoid them by walking on the far side of the hall. These jerks wouldn't have it though, as one of them made a point of coming over and swiping his cane. Helada clenched his fists furiously before reaching out to take it back. The first guy let him, only for the second to come over and trip him up the instant his fingers grasped it. The duo chuckled as Helada hit the ground and high-fived each other.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

Helada and the pair froze, looking up to see Gemini coming down the hall, and she did not look pleased. The cadets shrank back as her glare fell on them.

"You two! Tell me, what is the purpose of the Alpha Galaxy Patrol!" she barked.

"T-To defend those who cannot defend themselves," one of them squeaked.

"And where in this does bullying come into the picture?" Gem demanded. The pair began to babble, attempting to make excuses and apologize. Gem silenced them by holding up her hand. "You two are to report to the Simulation Room at seven hundred hours for direct personal training under me. You two will come to understand the purpose of AGP, or you will be dismissed from training. Is that understood?!"

"Yes Ma'am!" they both yelled, darting down the hall away from her as quickly as possible.

Helada slowly got to his feet and looked up at Gemini. "...thank you."

"What the hell were you doing?" she said to him.

"...what?"

"You graduated the academy, didn't you? Plus the abilities the Icesune granted you are formidable. You can't even handle two little punks like that?"

"What? But they're just cadets," he protested.

"Your point?" she asked. "Those two were being bullies, and that is not a tolerable act. I'm not saying hospitalize them. Just give them hell."

Helada's heart just about stopped. She had said… That was their old code. But then, that meant…

Gem's face remained neutral as she turned and headed back in the direction she had come without another word. Helada grinned. She did remember, and she did still care. For some indiscernible reason she was refusing to show it, but it was still there. Helada felt his heart warm a bit at the knowledge that his old friend was still his friend after all this time. He turned and continued on his way to his room, feeling a whole lot lighter…

...and those two punks were waiting by his door.

"You got us in trouble, you blind bastard!" one accused.

"You did that to yourselves," Helada countered.

"The hell we did," said the other. "We've only been playing with you so far, but now you're in trouble for getting us in trouble like that!"

The two came at him, clearly intent on beating him up outright. However, Gemmy's words rang clearly in his ear, and he evaded their amateur attempts easily. Initially he simply invaded, intending to just wait them out until they grew tired, but they seemed to get angier each time they missed, so he eventually turned around and smacked them both over the head with his cane a couple of times until they got the point.

Groaning and now with severe headaches, the pair glared at Helada, who simply said calmly to them, "You two are a disgrace, in more ways than one. I suggest you two think about why you joined AGP in the first place, if this is all you're intent on doing. Imagine if I were a regular blind guy you were hassling. You two would be no better than the low life scumbags jumping the helpless to defend himself and stealing his belongings. And if he could defend himself, what would happen to him? If things escalated, what do you think that lowlife would do? They would likely stab or shoot the man, potentially killing him. You think it's just a bit of fun, but it is a very slippery slope. Think long and hard, and re-evaluate why you're even here. Think about it while you're training with Gemini tomorrow, and if you still only want to return to hassling me or some other guy you think can't protect himself, I promise you will regret it. If it comes to that, though, you'd just better pray Gemini gets to you first because if it's me, I guarantee I will not be so nice again. Am I clear?"

The two looked at each other, then back at Helada and nodded, getting up and walking away. Helada smiled. He remembered this feeling, the feeling of taking care of himself. He also remembered that smile Gemmy had given him the first time he had done so, how proud she had been of him. Happier days that were long gone, but…

He looked at the Blue dorm, thoughtful. Even if he still wasn't sure on where he stood, for the time being at least, he could be comfortable with the thought that he could do some good here. For the time being, he could assuredly say this was where he needed to be.

Here, with Gemmy and the rest of AGP.


	4. Tempest

**ALPHA GALAXY PATROL: CALL TO ACTION!**  
**EPISODE 4: Tempest**  
**WRITTEN BY ZAK KAYES AND KATHRINE HAWKINS**

Late at night on the streets of Payton City is usually not the best place to be if you're alone. Despite the AGP's best attempts at night, they couldn't protect the ENTIRE city. Little crimes pass through the cracks of the AGP's web on crime. At one of the convenience stores by a gas station, business was slow. The store owner was talking to one of the people buying some food and their conversation was un-interrupted once a fox in a black hoody and baggy jeans made his way inside. Upon entering, he made his way silently to the back to grab a few energy drinks and some snacks, stuffing them in his hoody and jean pockets shamefully. He noticed some alcohol in the freezer units and opened it up, taking out a cold one and popping the cap, guzzling the contents down in almost one gulp. Casually, he leaned against the freezer unit and panted, keeping his hood down. He didn't want to be seen, not yet. As he headed for the exit, one of the candy bars fell out of his pocket, the sound capturing the attention of the cashier.

"Hey!" said the cashier. "The hell ya doin' man? You gonna pay for that?"

The fox stopped and turned his head slightly, his tan muzzle the only thing visible under the hood.

"I don't allow shoplifting in my store, kiddo." said the cashier, pulling out a shotgun from under the table and pointing it at the fox. "Now get over here and pay. Now."

The fox only tilted his head slightly and he clenched his fists, causing the lights in the store to flicker. He slowly walked over and stopped right in front of the shotgun, looking down at it.

"...I'm...hungry," the fox said quietly.

"Well boo hoo," replied the cashier. "The economy sucks, get a job. Now either you pay for that or I'll-"

The fox suddenly grabbed the shotgun, yanked it out of his hands and threw it behind him. Before the cashier could make a run for it, the fox grabbed him by the shirt collar and hoisted him up with one arm. He chucked him over the table and into one of the shelves, knocking it down. The cashier groaned as he tried to get up but the fox didn't approach. He only rubbed his hands together slowly, creating red-colored static from his palms. The light in the store began to flicker as the fox rubbed his hands faster. Before the cashier could scream, the fox raised his hand and a blast of electricity rocketed off and hit the cashier in the face. The electricity seared and wrapped around the cashier's head, effectively frying his face and killing him.

The fox smirked under the hood and looked to the cash register. He shrugged and went to it, opening it and emptying the contents into his pockets before dropping 5 dollars on the counter. He paused briefly as he noticed his reflection in the mirror on the side of the entrance. He shook his head and raised his hand, blasting the mirror with electricity and shattering it to pieces. With that, he left, and once he was clear of the gas station, he fired off another arch of electricity that struck one of the gas pumps, causing a chain reaction that caused an explosion.

"...you're next, Helada…."

~!~!~!~

Cyanide looked around, taking in all the high-tech operations of AGP HQ. Amin had taken it upon himself to show her around, since she had nowhere else to go. She was slightly nervous still, but highly curious about their operations, so she followed quietly, listening carefully to Amin's description.

"Up here is my personal favorite sector, Sector D, location of Intelligence," he said. "This is where I work when I'm not out on a mission." Amin took Cy to the elevator and brought her upstairs. "So miss Cy, what do you think so-"

"Mister." he said. "I prefer mister, it's easier that way for me."

Amin blinked. "Oh… uh…. I thought…? Oh well nevermind," he fumbled.

The elevator doors opened to a wide spanning room with people testing weapons and a section of the room enclosed with the words "Gun Course" written on the wall. On one side of the room were several training mats and exercise equipment, as well as training dummies and training equipment. The ceiling was hugewith a big room on the other side of the hall with a see through glass wall. In this room was an otter typing away on a keyboard, checking a few screens around him. it was sort of like a command center, looking over the area.

"This is Sector E, this entire floor." said Amin. "Most of our research gets done on this floor, and this is where you'll usually find my favorite otter. Speaking of which…"

In the middle of the room was Evan, without his white labcoat, only wearing a white sweatshirt over a blue button up t-shirt with brown pants. In front of him was a dark red mechanical exoskeleton with white stripes and accents all over the body. Evan raised up a standard looking Beta Badge and pointed the front at the exoskeleton.

"Commencing Advanced Combat Armor Digitization at 8 feet." said Evan. "Hoping to fully digitize Armor on and off for remote access."

"This ought to be good," whispered Amin to Cy. "Evan's been working on this for a whole week."

"Starting test with new vocal command in 3, 2, 1. ARMOR UP!" yelled the otter.

The suit in front of him began to glow and the Badge itself glowed the color of the suit. Evan grunted as he put his spare hand on the wrist holding the Badge up, watching the suit in front of him begin to turn into pixels and go into his Badge. Amin and Cy watched as the Badge processed the information, glowing much brighter and then come out of the Badge onto Evan's body, starting from the feet.

"Yes!" exclaimed Evan. "It's working! Meridia, how are we doing?"

The armor itself begin to pixelate onto his body and Evan stood as still as possible.

"I'm detecting an odd fluxuation in the power readings. Be cautious, I believe a surge is building."

"Control it!" said Evan, feeling the suit start to materialize onto his body. "J-just a little more till the containment field kicks in!"

"It's too unstable!" Merida replied.

"Well hold it-ACKKK!" Evan screamed out as the power surge suddenly kicked in and the armor itself suddenly reverted back to pixels, briefly sending electricity through Evan. He dropped to all fours and dropped the Badge, the pixels transferring through it and back to it's original standing position like nothing had happened. Amin and Cy came over and helped him up.

"I apologize, Evan," Meridia said. "The surge came too quickly for me to contain.

"I-It's alright," said Evan, shaking off the pain. "A true inventor must endure his mistakes if he is to succeed through failure...but damn, it still hurts none the less." He looked to Amin and Cy and tilted his head. "Oh it's you two. What are you doing here? Something up?"

Amin turned to Cyanide. "Mister Cy, this is Meridia, the AI core of our operations. She runs everything around here, and our brilliant otter Evan over here is the one who designed and programmed her. These two are basically the beating heart of AGP."

"We try," Evan said, rubbing his arm lightly. "Attempting to correctly calculate the precise algorithms required for a digitization of these battle armors is proving to be….wait what?" Evan turned to Amin. "Did you just refer to Miss Cyanide as a male? That's fairly impolite, don't you think?"

"Not really, since Cy told me to," Amin answered.

Evan blinked, looking at Cyanide and blushing. "B-But I thought….wait, what?!"

Cy didn't respond, instead looking around the armor Evan had been experimenting with. "What're these things?"

Evan walked to the exoskeleton and checked the helmet before turning back to Cy. "Since Jaigon's showed up and started terrorizing the city, I've decided to improve Alpha Galaxy Patrol's combat readiness. That's why I've been up all night and day focusing my efforts on constructing and perfecting the Advanced Combat Armor. My mentor, may he rest in peace, gave me the blueprints to make specially designed battlesuits to combat hostile alien forces, to travel safely through unstable environments, and dish out more damage when fighting stronger opponents. When things get too hot, the ACA is what you call on. Well, you WOULD call on them if I could figure out how to properly complete the digitization process."

Cy stared at him briefly before turning to Amin, looking confused. Amin translated, "He's working on a special battle armor that will also give environment protection to anyone wearing it."

Evan frowned. "Isn't that what I just said? Anyway, there's only 5 suits right now but I made 6 just in case I manage to develop a new one from scratch. They're only available to Agents through their Beta Badges. They'd get the new containment blasters I'm working on but that's another matter entirely-..." he looked back and forth at Cy and Amin. "Is she-...he here for the Entrance Exam?"

"Entrance Exam?" Cyanide asked.

"No, no, I was just showing Cy around," Amin said, looking over at an occupied training area. "Besides, I think even if he were, the combat area's a little full."

Cy turned to see Helada, in a black and blue martial arts tunic, practicing with his cane in various stances and kicks with a dummy. Amin turned to look at Cy.

"Cy, why don't you have a look around?" he said. "I think you'll find this area isn't TOO scary."

"...gee, thanks," Cy replied sarcastically. "I'm not a scared little girl you know."

"Little gi-...but…." Amin stuttered as Cy walked past him.

Helada hadn't noticed Cy approach from behind, too busy with taking his frustration out on the training dummy. It seemed like he couldn't really focus. He could hear laughter in his head and flashes of what had happened at the warehouse enter, specifically with Fillion falling to his death. Clenching his teeth, he struck the dunny rather violently. That moment refused to leave his mind.

"Excuse me?" Cy said, making sure to stay out of accidental striking distance.

Helada paused after he hit the dummy once more, turning his head slightly to notice Cyanide standing there. "Is something wrong?"

"I was just watching you is all, and your skills are amazing," Cy answered. "You must be a real asset to AGP."

He shook his head lightly. "I'm only passing through until I can get my living situation sorted out. I'm not an Agent and I have no intention to be one."

"Really? That's actually too bad with skills like those, especially since you're blind and everything," Cy said tactlessly.

Helada turned his head away slightly, frowning. "Um...thank you, I suppose. I can't tell if that was a compliment or an insult."

Cy flinched. "Oh nonononononono! I didn't mean… I'm so sorry! I wasn't trying to insult you, I swear! Just you move like you can see everything… and…. Oh god, I'm sorry!"

The arctic fox raised his hand in acceptance, turning to fully look at her. "Relax. It's alright. I used to get those all the time at the Academy. Don't worry, I'm not offended or anything."

Cy breathed. "Okay, good… because I was trying to compliment you. Your abilities are amazing."

"Thank you. I am glad to see that we could clear up the misunderstandings when we first met. What are you still doing here though, if I may ask?"

"Well…. I kind of don't have anywhere to go either," Cy admitted. "Besides, that fake record is going to dog me everywhere, so I'm really safest as long as I'm here, where I'm 'under custody' so to speak."

"A wanted criminal best kept safe in one of the biggest police headquarters in the galaxy." noted Helada with a light chuckle. "The irony couldn't be less subtle."

"Yeah, seriously," Cy agreed. "But there's something I really need to know. How do you do the things you can if you can't see?"

He smiled lightly. "Well, you know how bats can use sonar to see things? To put it simply, I use sound waves to see. Everything is usually monochromated for me but I'm able to see enough to defend myself. they were given to me once I was reborn by the spirit of the mountains on Ganthio, the Icesune."

"A spirit in the mountains called an Icesune? Wow, that's pretty wild," Cy said, looking a little stunned. "So like, that why you could read my aura that day in questioning too?"

"It's one of my powers, yes. We are trained to see without seeing, seeing the aura of someone, being able to read them as a person. Yours, as I told Amin, is scared. Troubled, yes, confused, yes, but NOT a killer. And I believe Rusty made that point clear."

"Rusty… that cat from the other day," Cy mused quietly, thinking of the promise he had made.

"Be wary of him." said the fox.

"Hm? Why?" Cy asked.

"There's something off with his aura. It isn't...clean, to say the least. It's shrouded by a web of lies. I can sense there is a sliver of good within him but I sense there is no limits to him. I sense he will do whatever it takes to get something done." the fox looked to Cyanide. "Even put others in front of him to take the blow."

Though unsure of this, Cy nodded. "So then, this Icesune gave you sonar and aura reading? Can you do anything else?"

Helada was about to say something until he heard a beep come from nearby, noticing it was Amin's badge.

Amin pulled out his badge and flipped it open. "Kodanda," he said.

"Amin, it's Gemini," came the reply. "I have a situation on my hands and need backup."

"Backup? You? Nah, since when?" Amin said with a joking grin. Helada took more serious note of the odd request. He had never known Gemmy to ask for help, no matter how badly she needed it.

"Don't be cute," Gem replied. "Just send someone to the docks. Gemini out."

Amin blinked. Even for Gem, that had been abrupt. "Something's strange about that call…" he muttered.

"Very." said Helada. "Shall I assist you?"

"...yeah, I think I'm gonna need some backup myself for this," Amin agreed. "We both know how weird it is for Gem of all people to ask for help."

Helada nodded, putting his cane on his shoulder and looking to Cy.

Cy shook his head. "No thanks. That chick scared the crap outta me. I'd hate to see what scared her."

Amin shrugged. "Alright. Be on your guard then, Helada."

~!~!~!~

Most large mansions have pretty good security, and this one was no exception. There were guards that patrolled, cameras, and guards keeping an eye on the system. It was fairly standard. For an experienced thief, it was cake to break into.

Rusty inched along the outer walls, keeping an ear out for any sounds while taking note of the number of cameras within the room beyond the window he was standing near. One, two, three. There were three, and they kept the sizeable room covered except for two blind spots. Rusty smirked. Those two blind spots were his ticket. Before he had so much as looked at the house, he had made sure to disable alarms, so sliding the window open and crawling in was nothing.

He moved quickly, ducking to one of the blind spots under the first camera and grinning. He climbed up to the camera mounting and pulled a cord, cutting off the picture. To most this was enough, but Rusty was not most. He quickly pulled out one of several little mechanical devices that he had tucked away in his pockets and plugged it into the camera socket, creating a data loop and feeding a false image of a clear room. He then ducked to the second blind spot under the next camera and repeated the process, and then casually strode to the third and looped the data, effectively disabling all the cameras.

"Cake. Hmph. How sad that a safehouse should be so simple to break into," he muttered to himself, almost disappointed. He made his way to the hallway, disabling any more cameras along the way, but stopping short when he heard two pairs of footsteps headed his direction. Smirking, he ducked behind a tapestry that hung on the wall and waited.

The guards, a pair of dobermans, walked by, one of them muttering something about being hungry. They seemed to notice nothing as they walked straight past Rusty without so much as pausing, but then one hesitated, sniffing the air.

"Hey… you smell something?" he asked his partner. Before an answer could be given, Rusty darted out from behind the tapestry and nerve pinched them, dropping them to the floor.

"Thank you for precise nerve weaknesses," he mused quietly, moving along swiftly. "This is still way too easy. Maybe I should leave a note about their security when I'm done here. Increased guard training, more secure networks for their communications, and suchlike. I mean, I didn't even need to kill the power to get in. That is not a confident statement about their protection."

Rusty continued to take note of weaknesses and inefficiency as he neared his objective, a strong safe in their basement. Rolling his eyes, he simply pressed his ear to the door of the safe and listened for the soft clicking of the tumblers as he turned the combination lock. After a mere 3 minutes 41 seconds (he counted), Rusty was pulling the door open, only to discover it was completely empty.

His jaw dropped. "W-What? But… how is this conceivable? I always triple-check my findings before I go to get anything! It should be here!"

The sound of a gun cocking and charging up was heard, immediately alerting the feline who turned around as well and pulled out his Shock Pistol. He was surprised though to see Dakoda right in front of him with his own blaster turned out.

"...last I checked, Agents aren't supposed to be doing criminal activities on the side." said the wolf.

Rusty groaned and flipped his Pistol in his hand, holstering it. "I have my own agenda. It's off the record, something I bet you know ALL about."

"None of your wise cracks," Dakoda ordered. "You are a temporary Agent, true, but you are an Agent still, and as such-"

"And as such, your rules are only words to me," interrupted Rusty. "I don't play by your rules. Only by mine. And people like me don't have that many. I'm here for one reason, and that's for the clean slate prototype. I did my research, I KNOW it's here and I know that Tauros is the one behind it all!"

"Well, you may want to double check our rules once in a while," Dakoda returned with a smirk of his own.

Rusty frowned. ""You don't know a damn thing about me." He quickly brought up his Beta Badge and flashed it. "And nothing in this little device can tell you WHO I am, Dakoda."

Dakoda sighed. "Then help me to TRY to understand who you are then! You better have a good reason for breaking and entering into a safehouse and attempting to steal a prototype."

The black cat's tail twitched and after a few moments of silence, he sighed. "...it's not just for me. It's for Cyanide. Someone created a record that is made to curse someone for the rest of their lives. My own record? I want it gone too. And the clean slate will guarantee it. Do you know what kind of device Tauros has created? Try to imagine just one little USB stick you can plug into any computer and it has the power to erase you from every criminal database on the planet. Imagine you're the most wanted criminal in the world and you go on a killing spree. You use the clean slate and get off the planet, going to somewhere where no one knows who you are…and then you can just rinse and repeat by having the slate just wipe the blood off your record. Imagine what kind of power that can have in the hands of the wrong person. So I'm going to put it to good use. For Cy to clear her name and for myself so I can start over, without my past coming back to bite me. And believe me...it will be for the best."

"I'm very aware of the dangers of the clear slate. You aren't the only one who's trying to locate it, though my reasons are very different from yours," Dakoda said, finally lowering his weapon.

The feline smirked. "Right, I can figure your reasons out pretty easily."

"The clean slate is too dangerous to be roaming freely, it needs to be in AGP's custody. Rhodes, you are currently still an Agent. It is just as much your responsibility as it is mine to find the clean slate, so this is an order from your commander. You and I will track down Tauros and the clean slate together. Is that understood?"

"I work alone." Rusty said flatly. "That's how it's always been and that's how it always WILL be. I learned quite recently the only person you can trust is yourself."

"Then explain why you came to AGP for protection in the first place," Dakoda pointed out.

"BECAUSE I HAVE NO CHOICE!" yelled the feline, his eyes glaring at Dakoda. "...I have a family that's disowned me. My brother and sister don't even talk to me, and my mother and father think I'm scum for going against them. I work a dead-end job that's only barely getting me by and the only friends I thought I had SOLD ME OUT! I have fought and struggled with what little skills I had to get where I am and the only damn reason I'm going to AGP for protection is because if I don't, I'm dead. I hate my past and I intend to rectify it And if you insist on forcing me to work with you, then so be it. But I'm going after Tauros alone. Once this mission is done, I'm gone, clean slate and all."

"So tell me. Do you know where to find Tauros?" Dakoda asked. At Rusty's silence, he continued, "I didn't think you did. Unfortunately for you, I do happen to know, and I intend to go after him as well. It seems a little counter-productive for us to be doing the same thing separately, especially since you don't even know the next move."

Rusty's tail whipped back and forth in irritation. He did not like it when someone else had information he needed, and even less when that information put him in a corner. Though it frustrated him to no end, it seemed that Dakoda had given him no choice.

"...fine, but I'm still out of here once we're done," he ground out through clenched teeth.

"By all means, you're welcome to leave when you need to," Dakoda said. "Trying to leave with the clean slate, however, may prove to be a little difficult for you."

"We'll see what happens when the time comes," Rusty replied.

~!~!~!~

At the same time, Helada and Amin had taken to the streets and found a lock on Gemini's Beta Badge. Helada sat quietly in the passenger seat of Amin's sport car, fixing his cane and fidgeting with his fingers slightly.

"Nervous?" Amin asked. "I don't think I've ever seen you get nervous before."

"Cautious." replied Helada. "...among other things."

"I hear ya. I mean, it's kinda weird," Amin mused. "If this is a trap, then who in the world would know to use Gem as bait?"

"No it...isn't that."

"Then what's up?"

Helada was quiet before raising his head up. "Fillion."

"Fillion? The guy you fried?" Amin asked. Helada looked towards him with a frown. "...sorry."

He sighed quietly. "...I can't stop thinking about what had happened. He didn't have to die when I tried to save him. The image of him falling is still stuck in my head."

"...I remember the first time I had to kill someone on the job," Amin said sadly. "It's… hard to stomach that first one. Unfortunately, that is a hazard that comes with this line of work. Some people simply don't want to be saved. You tried, did everything you could, right?"

The arctic fox's ear twitched. "...it wasn't always like that, him and I. When I first started out there, we became training partners. Fillion was always pushing himself to the limit, I could barely keep up with him. And I can remember that when he found out that I was Miss Feirca's pick, he just...snapped."

_**THIS WAS ALWAYS ABOUT YOU! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ME! **_

Helada shook his head. "I don't feel better knowing he's gone. I can only feel sorry for him and even that hurts because I feel I shouldn't. He was a bastard that didn't deserve what he sought because he was selfish, arrogant, and self righteous. I feel that I could have done more to save him somehow but…this is pointless, he shouldn't still have some kind of grip on me."

Amin laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You feel compassion for others, Helada. That isn't a bad thing, you know. It doesn't mean he has a grip on you, just that you have perspective on what's most important, which is trying to save people, regardless of personal feelings. No one hurt you more than Fillion, and you still wanted to save him somehow. That says a lot about the sort of guy you are, you know?"

The blind fox nodded and heard beeping come from Amin's Beta Badge screen on the car. A radar showed that they were right outside the docks. The docks were connected to the piers with many ships and freighters coming and going transporting goods.

"Are we here?" asked Helada.

"Looks like it," Amin replied, stopping the car. "Stay cautious Helada." He drew his crossbow and got out of the car, eyes scanning around for any signs of trouble.

Stepping out of the car, Helada held his cane by his side and scanned the area, looking for anything suspicious. As they grew close to the water's edge, a powerful, high pitched sound suddenly exploded through the area, forcing both to drop their weapons and cover their ears, while forcing Helada to drop to his knees, wincing in pain. Seeing Helada's suffering, Amin looked about to try to locate the source of the painful sound, but a sudden, unexpected electrical shock tore through the both of them, causing them severe pain and sending them into unconsciousness.

An hour or so had passed and Helada was the first to awaken. he could hear muffled voices in the background and this provided the sonar he needed. As he tried to view his surroundings, a few things looked distorted due to the high pitched sound from before. He groaned slowly as he raised his head up and then soon noticed that he was restricted by chains. He started to move against the chains but then found that the chains were stronger than they seemed. He was connected to Amin who was still out of it.

"What is going on…" said Helada quietly before starting to nudge Amin. "Amin. Psst. Amin, wake up…"

"Nnnrgh… what hit me?" Amin groaned, slowly coming to. "Helada? What-?"

"You two are idiots," came an irritated voice from Helada's other side. They both turned to see Gemini glaring at them. On a table a short distance from them sat their weapons.

Gem growled at the boys. "Why in the world would you fall for an obviously false transmission?"

"Would you rather we have ignored it?" asked Helada.

"Yes," was the simple reply.

"Yeah, she's the real deal. That's Gem for sure," Amin remarked sarcastically. Gem's ear twitched.

"You hear that as well?" asked Helada.

Two voices could briefly be overhead on the lower level and said voices belonged to Jaigon and the other, a female one, belonged to a female bull in a business suit.

"Okay, you got your stupid terms of agreements lined up," said Jaigon. "Now where's the stuff? You promised me you got it straight from the source this time."

"Oh trust me, I did," she replied in a surprisingly soft voice. She lifted up a secure case and opened it, showing it's contents to Jaigon, who seemed satisfied.

"NIce…" said the coyote with a nod, pulling out a briefcase and opening it up to show several gold bars. "Counted them myself, so hand the Auraline over."

Amin tilted his head. "Auraline? Ugh, I've had enough of this! We gotta break out!"

Helada nodded and focused his hands together. "Luckily for us, they didn't restrict the hands. Hold on." He closed his eyes and started to freeze the chains. Once they were completely frozen, Gem used her honed strength to force the brittle metal apart, breaking it to pieces.

Jaigon looked up at the noise. "WHAT THE...oh don't tell me-!"

With the chains broken, they each grabbed their respective weapons and ran over to the balcony, looking down at Tauros and Jaigon. With no hesitation, all three jumped down, landing around the pair.

"You aren't very bright, luring two more Agents here," Gemini observed. "It just makes my job that much simpler."

As she raised her escrima sticks, a sudden crack snapped through the air and Gem winced, her weapons being knocked out of her hands. The Agents looked in the direction it had come from to see a fox step out of the shadows, wearing an armor plate on his chest and two gauntlets that were attached to the chestplate by a pair of cables. The cables had dangerous-looking whips coming out of them.

Helada nearly dropped his cane. "No...t-that can't be…"

"Deja vu," he replied, snapping one of his whips. "No thanks to you, freak."

"F-Fillion…"

"Everything's going exactly to plan." said Tauros, crossing her arms. "You've managed to capture not three but possibly FIVE Agents with this elaborate little trap. And here Master Xantos doubted you…"

Helada tilted his head. "Xantos?"

Tauros grabbed both briefcases and knocked Jaigon away, having no problem suddenly darting towards the exit.

"HEY!" yelled Jaigon. "WHAT THE HELL!? WE HAD A DEAL!"

"Not when things are THIS hectic Jaigon!" she yelled, sprinting away. "You get NOTHING!"

Jaigon groaned and looked around before bringing up his wrist and pressing a button on his wrist to suddenly teleport away.

"Of course!" groaned Amin, looking back to Fillion.

"Awww, I'm not enough of a challenge?" said Fillion, growling as static emanated from his body.

"Fillion, whatever those people were promising you or giving you," said Helada. "It isn't worth it! You and I used to believe in the same thing. We used to be on the same side!"

"Till you took everything away from me." growled Fillion. "And now I'm just like you, another freak. I almost started to hate these powers...but now, they're all the edge I need to destroy you! My name means nothing to me anymore. You killed me Helada so now I'm reborn...as TEMPEST!"

The three Agents ducked some whip strikes from Tempest and rolled away, pulling out their weapons.

"Three on one, let's do this!" said Amin.

At the same time, Tauros had made her way out of the warehouse and looped around to the back where her pickup truck was. Before she could open up the door, a ball of electricity slammed into the door and the discharge knocked Tauros back. She turned around to see Dakoda and Rusty with his Shock Pistol.

"Who the hell-..." Tauros realized who they were. "...Agents. Lovely. So you must be the two who broke into my safe house!"

"Where's the clean slate, Tauros!?" yelled Rusty. "I know you have it in your posession, hand it over before I bring you in myself!"

"Hah!" snorted Tauros. "You, a pathetic little weasley thief, as an Agent? Don't even make me laugh!"

"Betson Tauros," said Dakoda, holding up his badge. "Surrender now or we will use force to bring you in!"

"Ooo, you wouldn't hurt a girl now would you?" she said, chuckling to herself before getting into a stance. "Because I can hit just as hard as ANY male!"

Dakoda looked to Rusty and nodded and they both rushed in. Dakoda chose not to use his weapons and ducked under one of Tauros kicks. Dakoda hit a few timed boxing jabs to the gut and then grabbed Tauros' wrist, twisting it and trying to twist the arm around her back. Tauros slammed her elbow into his face, turning around and hitting several hard punches to Dakoda's face. She knocked him against the car and tried to bash his head into the window but Dakoda was quick to knock her back and tackle her down. Tauros forced him off and charged at him, using her strong arms to pick Dakoda up and fling him into some crates. Rusty, who had secured the two briefcases and gotten them to his car, rushed over and fired a warning shot to get her attention.

"You miserable little pest!" yelled Tauros.

"Nothing I haven't heard before!" laughed Rusty.

Dakoda slowly got up and rubbed his hands together, charging up his hands with fire and then rushing in to his fire laced fists against Tauros. She groaned out in pain from each strike and Rusty fired off some blasts from his Shock Pistol but the blasts seemed to deflect off of her. Dakoda was resilient with his attacks, hurling fire at Tauros to try and stun her. But try as they might, they couldn't seem to take down Tauros. She drove both her fists into Dakoda to knock him away while Rusty jumped onto her back and tried to get her into a headlock. She struggled against him before grabbing him by the neck and holding him up by the throat. Dakoda got up to see Rusty but froze, not sure what to do.

"Well, that was of mild amusement." said Tauros. "But I have a tight schedule. And your cat friend is about to be put down!"

Without warning, she flung Rusty through the air and right into the water. Dakoda looked to Tauros making her escape and quickly raced to the water, diving in to try and save Rusty. He swam as fast as he could to grab Rusty and try to get him back to shore.

At the same time, Helada, Gemini, and Amin went head to head against the newly christened Tempest and despite their best strategies, they were constantly kept on their toes. Amin had been rendered unconscious after Tempest had caught him with both whips, electrocuted him, and thrown him against the wall. With just Helada and Gemini going up against Tempest, Tempest retracted the whips from his hands and floated through the air with his electrical powers, throwing energy bolts at the two Agents. Gemini had run off to the side and fired at Tempest from her blaster, hoping to hit him somewhere where he could go down. He not only dodged the blaster shots but also dodged Helada's ice beams. He flew down and tackled Helada, picking him up and spinning him through the air, and slamming him through a glass wall. Helada got up and was met with a series of precise kicks from the fennec. Gemini came up from behind and drove her knee into his back, knocking him away. She charged forward and jumped, driving her feet into Tempest's head to try and inflict some damage.

"Why don't you stay down before I put you down myself?!" she yelled.

Tempest grinned as he got up, staring down Gemini and activating one of his whips. "Because bitches like you deserve to be whipped!"

This time Gemini was ready. As Tempest hurled his whip towards her, she sidestepped and caught the whip, taking her blaster and firing it right at the chest plate. Tempest yelped in pain as she used the whip to yank him and used his momentum to jump and spin kick him in the face. Tempest crashed on the ground and Gemini grabbed the front of the chest armor and ripped out the power core, making the armor and whips useless. She rolled her eyes as she ripped the armor off and threw it away.

"Now then," growled Gemini. "you are going to be locked away for a VERY long time."

Tempest looked up at Gemin, faking surprise before smirking. "Famous last words."

Helada had finally got to his feet and raced over to Tempest but suddenly stopped as Tempest supercharged his fist with electricity. Gemini reached down but Tempest's fist rocketed up and hit her straight in her chest. The surge went straight through her body and she spasmed from it. Tempest rolled his body back and drove his feet into her chest, sending her flying away.

"GEMMY!" yelled Helada.

Before Helada could race over to check on Gemini, Tempest spun his leg around and clocked Helada in the back of the head. Helada fell over and Tempest repeatedly kicked him in the stomach. When Helada tried to get up, Tempest raised his palms and unleashed a burst of electricity into Helada, making him scream out in pain.

"Not so strong now are you!?" laughed Tempest. "You're just as weak as you were back then. Always helpless to save the ones you care about!"

Helada struggled against the electricity that kept getting pumped into him. He squirmed on the ground and tried to get up, fighting against the tortuous lightning.

"It's all over for you! GIVE UP!" yelled Tempest.

The fennec raised his hand up and supercharged it but before he could attack, a large blast of fire blasted him on the side of the face. He screamed out in pain, rolling away and clutching the side of his face. He looked over to see Dakoda standing with his fists aflame next a drenched Rusty. Tempest looked up to Dakoda with wide eyes and then growled.

"AGP, you're under arrest!" yelled Dakoda and Rusty.

Tempest, looking at the two incapacitated Agents and the new two that had just showed up. He looked around before turning tail and running. Dakoda was about to make a run for it before Rusty stopped him.

"Leave him. We got two guys down." said Rusty.

Dakoda nodded, going to Helada and Gemini and helping them up.

~!~!~!~

Gem awoke to the sensation of something cool and soothing against the sizeable bruise on her chest. She opened her eyes to realize that something was Helada's hand. He was using his powers to try to ease her pain. She tried to move, groaning a little from the pain, and Helada immediately pushed her to lay back down.

"Take it easy there, Gemmy. You got bashed pretty good back there," he said, resuming his cool compress. "Er… I hope that you don't mind this, but I can keep it a far more consistent temperature than an ice pack."

"It's fine," Gem replied. "Tell me something. That call was a fake. Was it really so good that it fooled both you and Amin?"

"Hardly," Helada replied. "There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that call was from you. The most obvious giveaway was that you do not ask for help unless there are lives other than your own at stake."

"If you knew it was false, then why did you come?" she demanded. "You had to have known it was a trap."

"Because I wasn't about to lose my best friend again," Helada replied. Gem fell silent, and he continued, "Gemmy, after what happened with the lake, I looked for you. I looked for a very long time, but you've always been good at disappearing. I couldn't track you down for anything. When I was brought here, I thought the Icesune had given me one more gift because the very first person I met here was the only person I've ever truly been able to trust."

Gem remained silent, her ear giving a slight flick.

"Gemmy, I've decided. I'm going to stay here, with AGP," Helada went on. "I… I don't want to be separated from you again now that I've finally found you. If staying in AGP means becoming an Agent and having to deal with this technology malarkey all the time, so be it." His gaze fixated on her face. "You protected me when we were in school. Now, I'm going to protect you."

"...Helada…"

He smiled. "You know, that's the first time you've said my name since I've been here," Helada noted. He took her hand and held it reassuringly. "Gemmy, I know you've got this mindset now that you have to do things alone, but that just isn't true. I know it'll take time, but I'm going to show you that you don't have to do things alone anymore. You don't have to be alone anymore. Neither one of us has to."

Gem still said nothing, but her hand slowly gripped his in response.

~!~!~!~

In Sector E, Rusty sat in one of the spinny chairs while Evan was off on his lunch break, playing with a pen from his pocket. He hummed quietly while he looked at the screen, mulling over the day's events before standing up and heading out of the room, going to the balcony area to look down at the cadets training below. He observed them, his ear flickering when he heard footsteps approaching, belonging to that of Dakoda. The wolf stopped next to him and looked down at the cadets.

"...I haven't been here for long and I've read through some of these cadets too easily. It's like taking a book off the shelf, skimming it, putting it back up, boring." Rusty pointed down to the cadets training. "Those two, having an affair. The male's been unhappily married so he's going for the skinny and slutty one. That one over there's a journalist, teenager over there's a drug addict, one over there is a recovering alcoholic, and the one ripping apart the dummy's got massive daddy issues."

"You have a talent for reading people, don't you?" Dakoda noted.

"...my brother taught me, actually. He was the only one who really took the time to teach me a lot of things since my dad and mom were too busy 'ruling the world' as they put it, to spend time with me." Rusty scoffed. "My sister didn't even care. And when my brother stopped caring, I just started to read everyone to figure things out. People didn't even have to say anything for me to figure out their stories. I can take one look at Amin and see cockiness and insecurity. I look at Gem and see detached emotional issues. I look at Helada and see a guy who, like me, has had to survive on his own with barely anyone to help him stand up straight except for one person."

Dakoda nodded. "Interesting. So when-"

"You though," started Rusty. "...aren't you a book I actually want to read through? Symptoms of paranoia, anxiety, sleep deprivation...constant nightmares. The scars on your body, which I may or may not have seen when I hacked into the cameras for the dorms, tell me you've been through a lot. Stab wounds, bullet scars, extensive hand to hand combat training, not to mention trying to get used to those fancy fire powers of yours? That must have taken years. And you have the eyes of someone whose killed. That leaves military or...mercenary. And it only shows that you were about ready to rip that fox's head off. So that...says a lot to me. And that's just skimming through the chapters, I haven't even gotten to the psychological stuff yet-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Dakoda interrupted.

"I got a feeling you came here for a reason," Rusty stated, going back into the room. "The Badge is right there on the table. I'm only contemplating the metaphysics of life before I sign those little papers. Ya know, if ya had told me to sign up to be an Agent to go after a little USB stick that doesn't even exist, I probably wouldn't have done it. For credits...maybe. But this whole mission felt pointless."

Dakoda didn't say a word. He simply tossed a USB stick onto the table in front of Rusty's face. Rusty blinked, then blinked again, then said the least intelligent thing he had uttered since coming to AGP.

"..WHAT?"

"Tauros never had it, my arrogant friend," Dakoda said. "I did, right from the beginning."

"Wait, that doesn't make sense." said Rusty. "So YOU developed this clean-...oh." He chuckled lightly. "...I get it. There never was a clean slate to begin with, was there?"

Dakoda grinned. "Clever as always. No, there wasn't. Those were dummy files that you hacked. It was set up to test you, to see how far you would go for someone. You had that information for a while, yet you didn't actually make a move at it until there was someone besides yourself at stake. You wanted to help Miss Cyanide as well, isn't that right?"

"Yes, I do. We've been over this." The black cat crossed his arms. "So what, am I in trouble now or something? I pulled this all off on my own, without your help."

"Exactly. You put yourself on the line to aid someone, and you did it on your own terms, using your own skills. That, Rusty, was what I was hoping to see."

"Hey. Don't get used to that. This feline's a one-man show. I came here for one reason only and now that it's done...I don't see what became of it. If there's no clean slate, what do I do about the records?"

"You let your superior officer officially pardon you and Cyanide, and clear both of your records of any outstanding charges," Dakoda responded calmly.

Rusty tilted his head. "Wait pardon-...hold on. You have that power, to pardon people's crimes? You could have pardoned me and Cyanide at ANY time?"

"Yes, I could have, but I needed to test you," Dakoda replied. "You are a skilled man, Rusty, but I needed to be sure that you would put yourself on the line for the sake of others, since you have a history of looking out for number one. You showed that you would stick your neck out for our little eavesdropping friend over there." Dakoda turned to the open doorway on the left, and Cyanide peeked into the room, looking embarrassed at being caught.

"How did you know I was there?" Cy asked.

"Instinct," Dakoda answered, gesturing that the hedgehog should come in. "Actually, I was going to speak to you about this anyway. We already know what the two of you are capable of, and you both show a desire to help those around you."

Cy tilted her head. "So...what are you trying to ask then?"

"I think he's trying to recruit us." said Rusty, casually against a chair. "Since he pardoned both of us, Dakoda wants to make us Agents and have him join this little establishment."

Dakoda nodded, going to Evan's computer and placing the black USB stick into the port, turning back to face them. "That's right. Your abilities and willingness to protect have impressed me, and I think you would both make exceptional Agents. What do you say you two?" Cyanide and Rusty looked at each other, considering the offer. They were about to answer when suddenly every single system shut down.

Dakoda looked around, frowning. "What the hell? Where's the backup power?"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth before a set of red lights came on, indicating the activation of the backup power. Evan, who had been on the other side of the room working on the armor, turned to the nearest console and began typing.

"Meridia? What happened?" he called upwards.

"There see-seeeeeeeee-seems to b-b-b-be a vir-ru-rus in the sy-s-s-s-s-stem!" Meridia responded in a disjointed manner, her program erroring like crazy.

"Meridia? Meridia?!" Evan called frantically. "No, this isn't right! Meridia has the very highest and strongest firewalls in her program! How on Ganthio could anything hack through that?!"

Helada and Gemini entered the room, having come running when the power went out. "Dakoda?! What's going on?" Gem asked.

"We don't know!" he answered. "Meridia said something about a virus, but how…oh no…." Dakoda's eyes turned to the USB stick he had popped into the computer port, realization dawning on him.

"The USB! It must have been a ploy the entire time!" Rusty exclaimed. All at once, the every single screen came on, all of them displaying the same message.

_**BASE LOCKDOWN! EMERGENCY PROTOCOL INITIATED! AGP'S TIME TERMINATED! THIS BASE NOW BELONGS TO XANTOS!**_

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	5. XANTOS

**ALPHA GALAXY PATROL: CALL TO ACTION!**  
**EPISODE 5: X.A.N.T.O.S**  
**WRITTEN BY ZAK KAYES AND KATHRINE HAWKINS**

It was a very lovely day outside, and many people could be seen on the streets enjoying the sunshine. There was little traffic to be seen, and the air was full of the lively clamor of a busy day as citizens went about their business.

A handsome wolf wearing glasses and carrying a couple of books in his bag walked along the street, smiling at the sight of a mother playing with her two children in front of their house. These were the sort of days he lived for, and it had seemed a fine day to get some errands done. He was approaching the local grocery store when he heard it.

A scream sounded from the direction he had just come in.

Turning sharply, he saw that the children he had just passed were screaming, and that their mother was being encased in some sort of mechasuit that seemed to appear from nowhere. Once completely engulfed, her eyes turned towards her own children, and she raised her arms above her head, preparing to swing down on them.

The wolf moved quickly, pulling the kids away before she struck. They cried, calling for their mother, and she gave chase, attempting to strike all three of them down. He ran, keeping the poor kids away from their apparently brainwashed mother, and saw that the same thing was happening all over the place. Everywhere, people were being randomly encased in these mechasuits and were turning on their friends and families. The city was being sent into complete chaos!

The Agents watched this unfold on their screens with complete horror. There seemed to be no discrimination. Every man, woman, and child was a target!

"Evan!" Dakoda barked.

"I'm trying! I'm trying to get us out of lockdown!" he replied frantically.

The screens all changed as a news report was displayed to them. "-origin of these suits is still unknown. Citizens are urged to stay within their homes…. wait, we have a breaking development! What appears to be a giant mechanical scorpion has appeared downtown!"

The screen displayed a huge mecha scorpion tearing through a few buildings, destroying virtually everything in its path without discrimination. When it got close to the newscopter, a voice rang out from it. A very familiar voice.

"Hey! Bring those cameras this way! I've got a message for your so-called protectors!"

All the cameras swung around to the scorpion's head, which opened to reveal Jaigon sitting at the controls with a smirk. "Hey AGP! Ya see all this? This is what your whole city's gonna look like when I'm through! This is from me to you lot! Come and get me if you think you can stop me this time!" He winked and cheekily blew a kiss at the camera before closing the access hatch and moving on to destroy even more.

Dakoda growled furiously. He should never have let that bastard get away! His internal rage was interrupted when the screens went staticky again, and a voice came over the system followed with the image of a mechanical skull with bright red eyes looking down. Dakoda froze in fear while Gemini's stone cold expression suddenly changed to that of anger.

_Do you like my mechsuits, Dakoda? _said the voice._ I may or may not have lifted them from the not-so-top secret military base on the other side of Ganthio. You'd be surprised what a few tiny lines of computer code can do this day in our digital age. How fitting that we meet again in the one place you said you never wanted to end up in, like a rat found home in a home fill of mouse traps._

"...what is he talking about?" asked Helada.

"Meet again? You know this guy?" Cy asked.

Rusty watched with interest as he opened up his badge and looked to something on his screen.

_In due time the answers will be revealed but you may address me as MASTER XANTOS. What I have shown you is only a taste of what's to come in my arsenal. As we speak, my virus is spreading through the population's telecommunications and they are being, shall we say, converted to my army. How will it feel I wonder to have this entire city turned against you and this tower, this HQ, this beacon of hope is the first thing that goes down?_

"Ever the cowardly tactics, you bastard!" Gem yelled. "You will leave the people out of this. Your fight is with AGP!"

_That it may be Agent Gemini, but we both know where you learned those tactics. _

"You're only a robotic creation." said Helada. "What can you possibly gain from all this chaos?"

_To see the worth that the AGP has to offer me. And nothing less. Now then, let's cut to the chase._

The Agents, whose eyes were still on the screen, noticed that a timer shower up, showing 45 minutes.

"...great, no pressure there." said Rusty.

"What are you planning?" asked Dakoda. "Why haven't you just taken us all out now? You don't seem like the type that would just kill us all and then walk away. That'd be too easy. And people like you NEVER take the easy way out."

_In 45 minutes not only will this city become the grounds for a technological army that will envelop Payton City, in 45 minutes I will have dug past your firewalls and your pathetic little defenses to find the one thing every hacker that's ever tried to get at it inside a place like this: the security algorithm. _

"Algo-what? What's that" Cy asked.

"The simplest way to put it is the codes and programming for all our security!" Evan said, for once giving a basic explanation.

"And with that comes complete and total access to every file, blueprint, and top secret this whole place has." said Rusty. "It's a good plan…yet I'm kinda dissapointed."

Gem smacked Rusty in the back of the head. "Be quiet you strange little man," she hissed.

"No really," said Rusty. "Props for the theatrics but if you really need this much time in order to get through the firewalls, you must really be an amateur. And what do you even plan to do with the algorithm on the off chance you get to it? Well I'd say you have quite the bargaining chip on your side so what would someone do with information like that? That's easy, sell it all on the black market. You'd be giving away blueprints and files on everything this place holds close. Personal relations, family members, known associates, bank accounts, and don't even get me started on all the nasty little gadgets and weapons you could make yourself Of course...that would work unless you had the necessary materials which you may or may not even have so if you plan to get some more, we'll have eyes everywhere on you. You wont be able to make a single transaction or business deal without somebody in the middle screwing up and leading us right to you. After all, you're just a computer. With such an underwhelming plan like that that the AGP can find a simple counter to, I just have to ask, why are you even wasting your time when someone like me just figured out exactly what you're going to do and how to simply counter it?"

_ENOUGH! _yelled Xantos, causing the power in Sector E to suddenly flicker. _There are some people in the world who should be brain dead and shouldn't have access to such knowledge like that. Perhaps that's why your family disowned you. Now stay silent lest I find something in here to give you a lobotomy._

For once, Rusty had no reply.

_45 minutes is merely a challenge. _continued Xantos. _A challenge...that starts now._

Before anything else could be said, all the Agents sans Evan and Amin suddenly found themselves digitized and transported to the prison sector of their HQ, two to a cell. Gem and Helada in one, Rusty and Cyanide in another and Dakoda alone in the last..

"Well ain't this just peachy?" Cy grumped. "And all before I could even decide if I wanted to be an Agent."

"...first time I've ever been in a cell." said Rusty.

"Hey! Is everyone alright?" Helada called.

Xantos appeared on the screen, looking over all the cells and the walkways on the second floor, observing the criminals on the first floor.

_PRISONERS OF THE AGP! It is time for you to own the keys to your future! It just so happens I've brought a meal for you all in 5 AGP Agents. When all the Agents are dead, you may all go free. Initiate opening of Cell Blocks A-F, all prisoners are free to explore the area! ENJOY!_

A loud buzzer sound came from the speakers above, drawing the attention of the Agents and people in the cells .A few seconds later, the doors to each of the cells suddenly opened. Dakoda and the others immediately stepped out, looking around. They were separated on different parts of the cell block...and soon looked to the criminals that started to exit from their cells.

"We don't have time for this." said Dakoda, fists glowing with light fire.

Rusty immediately stood in front of Cyanide and protected her, pulling out his Shock Pistol. "Stay behind me and let me fight them."

"I can fight too, you know." she said, clenching her fists. "You haven't seen me get angry."

"No, I haven't but I know what people are like when they get backed into a corner."

Helada and Gemini emerged from their cells and looked around, noticing some of the criminals noticing them.

"Just like back home, huh Gem?" Helada smirked, drawing his cane. "Focus on incapacitation, don't kill them."

Gemini nodded and turned her attention to a dingo that approached her. She was without her weapons but she didn't need them. She approached the dingo and ducked a punch, ramming her shoulder into his upper torso and grabbing his arm, plunging her palm into the arm socket to dislocate it. She chucked him over the railing onto the other prisoners, looking down at him before seeing the other line of criminals approaching. Helada, on the other side, blasted two criminals in the face with ice in the face to disoriented them and kicked them both in the chest in succession before grabbing their ankles and tripping them. He jumped over them and coated a hand in ice, hitting a series of jabs to the prisoner in front of him before uppercutting him down. He moved back to Gemini and stuck close with her on instinct.

Rusty stuck next to Cyanide with his Shock Pistol aimed at the chests of the prisoners, charging up shots and having each hit their mark. Before he reloaded, he paused and reloaded, storing the pistol away, not wanting to run out of clips just yet. Hand to hand combat was not his thing but he was ready none the less. he grabbed one of the doors and slammed it into the prisoners face, charging in and hitting the prisoners straight in the face. he attacked his arm and hit a chop to the neck to disorient him before jumping and kicking the prisoner in the chest to knock him into the past.

Cyanide rubbed her hands together to create Chaos and thrust her palm forward, shooting a beam of Chaos at the prisoner to knock him back. She began to fire energy blasts at the prisoners to knock them out. She ducked and dodged under some more strikes before thrusting her palm in a prisoners face to disorient him and she leaped up, driving a foot into him to send him falling back. She looked back over to Dakoda fighting some prisoners on the first floor and jumped onto the railing, hurling her body over and landing on the prisoners with a crossbody.

"That is one crazy chica.." said Rusty to himself.

Dakoda looked to where Cyanide had landed and looked to the other prisoners. He growled as he got into a stance. Suddenly, weapons digitized into the air resembling that of airsoft rifles. Dakoda's eyes flashed red and he raised his hands up, creating a wall of fire that separated him and the prisoners. They stood confused and Dakoda lunged through the flames, tackling one of the prisoners down and blasting the other two next to him with blasts of fire. These three armed prisoners barely stood a chance against Dakoda as he spun around, hands creating beams of fire to strike against the prisoners. THey screamed out in pain as Dakoda struck them with hard and fierce punches that knocked them back. Rusty jumped down and looked at their weapons, breaking one apart and finding a computer chip inside.

"Bingo…" he chuckled.

Helada and Gemini jumped down, joining the other three and they got into a circle, noticing more of the prisoners were starting to get their bearings back.

"How long are we supposed to keep fighting? They won't stay down!" said Helada, holding his fists up.

"These guys are meant to be tough." said Cyanide. "3 guesses where they got the weapons from."

"Brace yourselves then." said Dakoda.

As the prisoners closed in, the five Agents found themselves wrapped in the digitzation field and they vanished. With a flash, the group reappeared in one of the break rooms. They each looked around, their weapons at the ready.

"What just happened?" asked Rusty.

"Guys? Dakoda, Gem, ANYONE? Can you hear me?" came Amin's voice over their badges.

Dakoda opened his. "We're here. You guys alright up there?"

"Finally! I've been trying to get through to you guys since you were transported!" Amin replied, sounding somewhat relieved. "Evan said that the process Xantos used to transport you is the very one he's been trying to perfect, the digitization! If you guys can get ahold of any sort of computer chip from any of his little playmates, Evan may be able to use that program to finish the ACAs!"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Gem demanded. "We're not exactly a swift jog from Sector E, plus there's no guarantee we could even get a chip off of anything."

"Unless you count the one or two I picked up from our dance partners downstairs." said Rusty, pulling out a few chips from his pocket. "Oh wait. Do these count?"

"Ahead of the game as always, Rhodes," Amin complimented. "You don't need to physically bring them up here. You only have to scan the information with your badges. All we need is a link to the database for Evan to hack the program out and get it into the ACA."

"Sounds like we have a plan then." said Helada. "What's our timer at?"

"Thirty-six minutes, seventeen seconds," Cy said very precisely. When the others looked at her, she shrugged. "What? I'm used to keeping track of time."

"So where do we go from here?" asked Rusty. "Sector E can't be far."

Gemini brought out her Badge and tried to activate the holographic display but it came out as distorted. She grumbled and put her Badge away. "He's interfering with the uplink to our badges. As far as I know, we need to get up to the upper levels without the elevators. It would have been better if we weren't teleported to the other side of the base though."

"That's out of our control right now." said Dakoda. "Let's get going then."

The others nodded and turned to leave the room. Rusty paused once he heard his Badge beep. He pulled it out again and scanned the message sent before his eyes widened. He stood there for a moment, confused. Cyanide turned back to see him.

"Rusty, come on!" she said.

Rusty nodded and put away his Badge, immediately following Cyanide and trying to process what had just been sent to him.

~!~!~!~

Back in Sector E, Evan sat at his computer busily typing away while lines of computer code raced across the screen. Amin stood beside him, looking over his shoulder and keeping his eye on the training area below the command center.

"None of this makes any sense." said Amin. "How have we not known about this guy? The database has jack on him."

"Unfortunately, I can't access our database without it being exposed." said Meridia. "Evan is putting my energy into fortifying the firewalls that this XANTOS program is trying to destroy."

"And I'm pretty sure this is going to start turning into an uphill battle soon." mumbled Evan. "On top of having to fight off this intruder, we have the disaster happening out in the city! I need to get the ACA online… but I need control of the system to do it!" He began typing furiously. "Meridia, I know you're still in poor condition from the initial attack, but can you do anything to buy us some time? Even a few seconds could make a critical difference!"

"I am trying, Evan." she replied. "The initial drain has lagged my processing speed but I am keeping XANTOS at bay. I am re-routing the power from the areas in the HQ that are using up energy to increase the firewalls that XANTOS is eating through."

"Well there's got to be a way to shut him down." said Amin. "Our computer geeks have taken down viruses worse than this. This guy's just a computer virus, there's always an anti-virus program. XANTOS must have somebody on the other hand digging into our systems, maybe like-"

"Are you suggesting there's someone on the inside?" Evan interrupted.

"I'm just saying that somebody created this thing, somebody has to be on the other side and ya told me, first thing about hackers: Opening doors is a two way venture. Xantos opened a door to get in...whose to say we can't go through HIS door?"

Evan slowly started to smirk. "Especially with the information the others provided by scanning those chips. You're right!" He resumed his busy typing with renewed vigor. "Okay Xantos, you hack my systems, I hack yours! Access!"

A couple of screens lit up with information from the other end of the link. Evan read over it as quickly as possible, then paused at one particular screen. "There! That's it!"

Amin looked over Evan's shoulder and his eyes widened. "...digitzation files?"

"Exactly the algorithm I've been attempting to perfect! Xantos has it completely worked out! Downloading…"

"Woah woah woah!" said Amin, yanking Evan's hand away. "Are you crazy? Don't you find this just a little bit off? What happens if you download those codes? What if it's a trap?"

"We don't exactly have any length of time to consider alternatives!" Evan counted, pulling his hand free of the fox's grip and pointing at the counter. "We need to take a chance!"

Amin looked to Evan and the screen, shaking his head. "Alright. I'm trusting you on this."

Evan nodded and resumed the hacked download, though he was internally agreeing with Amin. THis was a very dangerous thing to do, but they really were running out of options. If they didn't find some means of expunging XANTOS quickly, they were all done for.

~!~!~!~

The Agents continued their way upstairs and around invading mechsuit forces, keeping their route straight as possible to the center of their HQ. Though they were slowed down at a few points, they kept on going till they finally got up to the level that Sector E was on. It was a ways away but they soon came to a fork in the road, leaving two routes to the Sector. Dakoda and Gemini both looked down the halls and turned back to see Helada, Cyanide, and Rusty still there with them.

"We can't be much further to the Sector." said Dakoda, pulling out his Badge and finally getting a clear holographic map. "Here. If we head to the left, we can straight shot through the Garage and loop around to Sector E."

"Sounds like our best plan," Gem agreed.

"And what of the other route?" asked Helada. "What if we go to the right?"

"It's the much longer route." said Dakoda, showing the floor plan. "I don't know if you can see it but we'd be heading through the exercise center, go down a level, and loop back up to Sector E. This would be much easier if we could get the elevators working but it's too risky to use them."

"...and that's bad." said Cyanide. "He can just lock us in an elevator and drop us down to our death or something."

"Exactly." said Dakoda. "What's our timer at?"

"20 minutes and 23 seconds." said Cyanide. "Can we make it?"

Gem frowned. "If we were to take the longer route, we would be cutting it close," she noted. "It's a much better idea to take the shorter one."

Dakoda nodded. "Then that's what we'll do. Our best bet's the shorter way."

"And who made you leader?" asked Rusty, from the back. "...did I miss some kind of meeting where everyone just magically starts agreeing to everything you say?"

Helada looked at Rusty. "Well, Dakoda's more or less been in charge from the beginning, hasn't he? Why is that a problem?" he asked reasonably.

"Problem? No no, I don't see a problem at all." said Rusty, pausing before bringing up his Badge and activating the holo screen, showing mugshots of Dakoda and Gemini. "...unless you count taking orders from two ex mercs who used to work with Xantos as a problem."

Gem and Dakoda felt ice run down their spines. Gem grabbed Rusty by his collar roughly. "Where did you get that?!" she demanded.

"Ooo, I see I've struck a nerve." said Rusty, his face almost emotionless but his voice full of snark. "Where else do you get classified information? Straight from the source. My bug took a little longer to process the hack but now...well, cat's out of the bag."

Dakoda growled, his hands flaring up with fire. "You son of a bitch, YOU HACKED INTO OUR SERVERS?! That's how XANTOS got in! You opened a door for him!"

"Ah ah ah." interrupted the feline. "I said it before and I'll say it again, I am a one feline show. I don't work for XANTOS and I'm seriously questioning why I'm working here now. Seriously, what do I have to gain from helping an AI unit break into AGP, hm? Money? Power? A clean slate that was never real? Come on now, don't be stupid. Now you two better unhand me before I put you both under arrest for co-conspiring with the enemy!"

"Co-conspir-...is that true?" asked Cyanide, turning to Dakoda.

"Gemmy would never do that!" Helada argued, not even hesitating to defend her.

"Gemmy, that's cute." said Rusty, rolling his eyes. "Tell me then. What did 'Gemmy' do after the two of you were done in school? Where was she that whole time, and what was she doing?"

Helada paused for a brief second before growling, "That doesn't matter. I know Gemmy better than any of you-"

"Yeah, you would defend the one you're banging." said Rusty, escaping from Gemini's grasp and immediately pulling out his Shock Pistol. "Let's see here. Ohhhh isn't this interesting, the great and mighty, stone cold Gemini has a CRIMINAL RECORD."

Helada looked over to Gemini in confusion.

"Now this is one record that matches up." said Rusty. "Treason, arson, attempted murder, theft, and homicides up the wazooo well now, someone's been naughty."

"That's enough Rusty!" said Dakoda, moving forward towards him. "Stop. We don't have the time for this."

"Oh I think we do." said Rusty with a glare. "Your record is just as dirty as hers only here...yours is so much more red. You worked for XANTOS DIRECTLY while Gemini was employed to someone who also worked directly for XANTOS!" He turned his attention to Helada and Cyanide. "And don't either of you find it strange that when these two wackjobs show up, XANTOS decides to take over the base? Or how Dakoda didn't even bother to scan the USB stick he had gotten from Tauros? It's clear as day these two 'mighty and fearless leaders' are just pawns in XANTOS game! So before you two start telling us what to do, I want to know what the hell makes you qualified to even call yourselves Agents if some place like the AGP HIRES CRIMINALS TO-RCKKK! …"

Rusty was cut of by a violent punch to the stomach, courtesy of one very pissed off arctic fox. Helada glared down at him, looking about three second away from freezing him where he stood.

"Helada." said Dakoda. "...he's right. Those records are true. She was here before me and when I joined, I was going to be put away for a long time till they offered me a chance to fix that, by becoming the Red Agent. And just became I AM the Red Agent doesn't make me the leader. Red is just a color. Experience dictates who we are."

"That doesn't make Rusty right," Helada argued. "You two have records. Okay, fine, I can't argue that. However, that doesn't mean you aren't Agents, nor does it mean you aren't the right guy to lead us. Gemmy has always lived a harsh life, and I have no doubt that you did either. It's all over your aura. You both did things you regret, I've known that for a long time. However, there is a pure loyalty that you both have. It resonates all around you. You both love being Agents, and you are both dedicated to who you are now and what you do. You may have done regretful things in the past, but you both live in the present, doing everything you can to protect and save people. Am I wrong?"

"No. You're not." said Dakoda, looking at Rusty. "However, I find it hypocritical that you would hack into our servers and start to call us criminals when you've JUST done something that can very easily get you fired. You're a criminal as well and nothing changes that, even if you wipe out your record. And I don't know what gives YOU the right to be paranoid like this. If you think you should be the leader, then go right ahead. But I don't think you know the first thing about being one."

Rusty looked up at Dakoda with disgust before his face changed back to having little to no expression.

"...then if that's the case," asked Helada. "Why aren't me and Cyanide a leader?"

Cy shook her head quite frantically. "No way! I'm no leader!" she exclaimed.

Gem looked at Helada and, for the first time, gave him a smile. "Helada, you've never been a leader, and you know it," she said gently, letting him know that this was not a criticism, simply a fact. "Besides, Dakoda is the best choice for leader. I've been here longer than any one of you, including him, and I will tell you right now, I trust Dakoda. He is a smart, strong man with a powerful conscience and is driven to do the right thing at all times. I respect and trust him, and you all should too. He hasn't lead us wrong yet. Why should that change now?"

Rusty slowly got to his feet and looked to the others, noting their loyalty to Dakoda. "...you're seriously trusting these two?" Helada and Cyanide nodded. "...fine. Guess I'm outvoted then. Your move, 'leaders'."

~!~!~!~

"Hey Evan, I don't suppose you have any good news for me right about now, do you?" Amin asked a little desperately.

"Well, the download is done, and Merida has bought us at least six more minutes," Evan said hopefully. "Come on, just a few more minutes and this project will be done."

Amin pulled out his crossbow. "Not quite the 'I got XANTOS out of the system' I was hoping for…" He aimed at the door, having heard unfriendly sounds coming from the other side of it. "Keep working! I think we're about to have visitors!"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the door slid open, revealing several combat drones that AGP used for training purposes.

"Great… he found our command codes!" Evan growled.

"I can handle a few drones," Amin assured him, letting loose with the crossbow.

His first volley of arrows pierced several weak points on the joints of two drones, immobilizing them. Another drone got close enough to grab Amin around the waist, but with his free hand, Amin shot it in the eyes, disabling its vision and allowing him to kick free. He placed two more shots to its knee joints, sending it crashing to the ground. The two drones behind it shoved it out of the way and, as they were programmed to do, adapted their strategy to combat Amin's fighting style. The pair split up, approaching him from two sides. Amin jumped out of the way of one, but another caught him in the leg with its blade, leaving him with a sizeable gash and somewhat hindering his ability to move. Amin didn't pause though, and took aim at one drone that had cut him, firing off arrows at its eyes.

The drone shielded its eyes with one armored hand, but this brief lapse was exactly what Amin was hoping for and he took the opportunity to shoot it's elbow joint, jamming its own hand over its eyes, effectively making it blind itself. While that one staggered and tried to unjam its arm, the second one converted its blade to a blaster and opened fire. Amin did his best to evade, but his damaged leg hindered his motion and several shots caught him. Wounded, Amin fell the the ground. The drone closed in on him, returning its weapon to blade form. Amin closed his eyes tightly, preparing for the fatal blow…

...only for the drone to suddenly stop moving. He looked up in time to see its metal turning a bright red, as though being heated. He managed to get a look behind the drone and grinned. Dakoda and the others had made it to the Sector, and Dakoda was currently overheating his assailant while Cy and Gem beat the blinded one into pieces.

Amin chuckled. "Don't suppose you could have cut it a few seconds closer, huh commander?" he joked, trying to get up before doubling over in pain.

"You alright?" asked Dakoda.

"Eh, I'll live," Amin replied, this time forcing himself to his feet. "We've got more important things to worry about, like the countdown!" He pointed at the timer, which now read 2 minutes and 24 seconds. "We would already be at zero if it weren't for Meridia, but we're still in an assload of trouble!"

The timer on the screen that was just closing in on 2 minutes suddenly stopped and turned off, switching from static to Xantos face.

_Unfortunately for you, _he said, _you won't be in trouble for much longer. I've decided that I'm going to let you all go._

"...wait, what?" said Dakoda, on his guard.

_Yes. I am letting you all go. You're all free to leave...and hopefully get out of the blast radius of this city's beacon of hope._

"B-Blast radius?" Cy stuttered.

_What's the phrase? Kill two birds with one stone? _

The screen suddenly changed to a counter counting down from 15 seconds.

"WHAT!?" said Rusty. "How does this place have a self destruct command!?"

"EVAN DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING!" yelled Helada.

"Everyone, get to shelter!" yelled Dakoda,

Evan blinked, then simply smiled. "Belay that order, Dakoda," he said confidently.

Everyone braced themselves as the counter hit zero...but nothing happened.

_...what is this!? I SAID SELF DESTRUCT!_

Evan smirked. "Aw, not as easy as you thought? Wait, it gets better," he taunted.

"...how are we still alive?" questioned Helada.

Before anyone could answer, a loud buzz began to rang out, mixing with Xantos's voice. _What is this?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!_

"I thought you'd never ask," Even replied. "There is no self-destruct command, Xantos. There are, however, several safeties, and you just tripped one of them in your haste to get rid of us. Self destruct still does what it sounds like, only it destroys whoever trips it, and sends the program back to the source!"

Even as he explained, Xantos began to fade out of the system, being forcibly expelled by the clever protection. Just before he disappeared, Meridia appeared in front of him and waved pleasantly at him with a smile, bidding him goodbye as he was finally expunged.

"...what just happened?" asked Dakoda.

Evan started typing away furiously. "What just happened is that we lost our intrusive visitor and I've regained optimal control of our base," he explained.

"Excellent!" said Helada. "...that takes care of one problem at least. Now what do we about Jaigon?"

Amin looked to the five suits in the tubes and then back to Evan. "...they gotta have something to use to fight against that scorpion thing."

"The Advanced Combat Armor?" asked Rusty. "Last I checked, there's only 3 Agents here."

Evan quickly came down from his command Center with two Beta Badges in his hand, one black and blue and the other all black with silver accents.

"Then we need two more people." said Evan. "I need to run these through tests as soon as possible so perhaps-"

"Tests?" said Amin. "Dude, you see what's going on out there right now? Innocent lives are at risk and you want to TEST these things now!?"

"W-well we don't know what these are capable of!" said Evan. "We don't know if these codes are even going to work! If we activate them and they go wrong, we are practically defenseless-"

"Evan," Gem's cool voice interrupted. "You will do it now, or you will face direct discipline from me. Is that understood?" The tone of her voice made it clear that it was not an idle threat.

Evan looked to her in fear but sighed, nodding. "Alright. Then who is going to be Blue and Black?"

"...I will." said Helada. "I've already decided."

"Me too," Cy answered. "You guys gave me a chance, even when it looked really bad for me. I want to join this team, to be an Agent."

Evan looked to both of them and nodded, handing them their Badges. "You're not Agents yet. You still have tests and the Exam to go through but right now, we don't have a choice."

"You didn't give me the exam when I became an Agent the first time." said Dakoda, smirking slightly. "Where's Jaigon at right now?"

"Last sightings put him downtown." said Amin. "I'll be on the sidelines for this time. Don't wanna get injured out there again."

Evan quickly went up to the command center and started typing. "All 5 of you hold your badges out. Stand by for download!"

Dakoda, Gemini, Helada, Rusty, and Cyanide each nodded, bringing their Badges out and waited. Evan pressed one final key and the download initiated, making each badge start to glow their respective color. The suits from the tubes suddenly began to digitize and turned into pixels, depositing themselves into the Badges.

"Digitization, complete." said Meridia. "Halfway, at least."

"I suggest you 5 suit up." Evan said, motioning to the lockers. "Since we don't have time for the test, those suits will serve as the blueprint for the Armor to stick onto. All you need to do is use the voice command Armor Up and...well, pray for the best."

Helada nodded.. "Here goes nothing then…"

Evan quickly came down with a white blaster and handed it to Dakoda. "Here. You'll also need this. A containment blaster, in case Jaigon gets away."

"Trust me," said Dakoda. "He WON'T get away that easily.."

~!~!~!~

Jaigon continued his rampage downtown, getting out onto the freeway with his mechascorpion terrorizing cars passing by. Activating the rockets and guns from the front of the mech, cars found themselves flipped over, crashing, and colliding with each other, causing explosions in the process. Jaigon laughed as he made the arms swing to slam into cars and the back legs to knock cars away before jumping down and heading into the city.

"This is just pathetic!" said Jaigon. "Your precious guardians are locked up in their tower and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it!"

"THINK AGAIN!" yelled a voice.

Jaigon turned the mech around and gasped, seeing Dakoda, Gemini, Helada, Rusty, and Cyanide walking down the street towards him. They each wore skin tight black outfits with stripes on various parts representing their colors. They almost looked like motorcycle outfits with visors for sunglasses on their eyes, headsets attached as well. They each wielded their respective weapons with Gemini and Cyanide bringing their own weapons into the fray for the first time.

"What!? But...how!?" yelled Jaigon, slamming his fist on the control pad. "How did you get out!?"

"We're always prepared!" said Dakoda. "Your master had us pinned down and tried to separate us but he only made us stronger!"

"And now we're gonna be strong enough to take you down!" said Cyanide.

"Playtime's over, Jaigon!" said Helada. "You wanna destroy Payton City? You're gonna have to go through us to do it!"

"GLADLY!" yelled Jaigon. "YOU WANNA DANCE, LET'S DANCE!"

Dakoda looked to the others who nodded and took out their Badges, holding them up.

"_**ARMOR UP!" **_

With the Badges extended from their hands, they pressed a button on the side and held their arm steady, letting the pixels come out of the badge and start to wrap around their bodies. Jaigon growled and fired off a few rounds but energy shields projected themselves in front of the Agents, giving the pixels time to wrap around their bodies. Upon doing so, the pixels digitzed into the suits in the tubes and they fit snugly around the Agent's bodies. Helmets enveloped their heads and fixed themselves around the sunglasses as the main visor.

"Full digitization success," said Meridia. "Containment field secure, energy readings stable at above 90 percent."

"Holy shit, it actually worked…" said Amin.

"For how long though?" said Evan, then picking up his headset. "Alright guys, try not to get banged up TOO much. Your suits have energy shields but once they're done,you're on your own. Go get 'em!"

Dakoda nodded, looking to the others and extending his hand, summoning his Flambard.

"Focus on the legs!" he yelled, spinning his Flambard in his hand and running into battle.

Helada and Gemini rushed to one side while Rusty and Cyanide dashed to the other. Jaigon chuckled as he turned his mech to target Dakoda, Helada, and Gemini. He looked through the targeting computer and gripped the controls, firing off missiles towards the three. Dakoda turned to notice several small missiles heading straight towards them. He grabbed one of the cars and brought it up to use as a shield, allowing Helada and Gemini to get closer to one of the legs. The holes on the legs opened up to show places for missiles to shoot out of and a turret on the bottom popped out from the underbelly, firing off bullets like a semi-machine gun at the two Agents. Helada tried bringing up an ice shield but the bullets shattered it and hit into Helada and Gemini. An energy discharge from their suits knocked them back and they quickly ducked for cover by one of the cars.

"Ugh...okay, that didnt hurt as bad as I thought." said Helada, panting slightly."Does that thing have enough weapons!?"

"Stop griping. Just take them out," Gem replied.

"Easy for you to say." said Helada with a dry chuckle, looking around. "It's hard to see through this visor."

"Since when have you ever needed your eyes?" she pointed out. "Use your ears like you always do."

The arctic fox paused briefly but then nodded. "Go. I'll cover you." Gem nodded and darted around the side of the car, dashing to the missile launcher leg.

Helada immediately rolled to the side and thrust his palms forward, unleashing an ice beam at one of the legs. He began to coat it in ice and covered up the missile holes, rolling to another car when the turret spotted him. Gem took the opportunity to get under the turret, yanking the end of her escrima stick off to reveal the hidden short sword within it, jamming it up into the turret's armor plating as she slid, slicing it open and leaving it vulnerable to a strike from below. Twisting herself around she jammed the blade up into the turret, stabbing right through the circuitry and wires, disabling it. She turned her head to the sound of missiles being fired at her and she jumped off the leg, twisting in the air to dodge the missiles but one exploded next to her and she crashed into the ground, rolling before getting it back up, shaking her head.

Helada raced over and listened to the sound of missiles from another leg heading straight for him but he swung his cane behind him, unleashing a barrage of ice crystals that took out the missiles. He raced over to the ice coated leg, slashing into it when he covered his cane in ice. He stabbed it right into the leg and looked over to Dakoda. The wolf nodded and grabbed one of the cars he had used and chucked it at the leg, smashing part of it off to render one leg useless.

On the other side, Rusty kept running to avoid the turret that had found him. He kept firing off energy blasts from his Shock Pistol at the turret, rolling behind a pickup truck and reloading. He noticed Cy leaping around and unleashing blasts of Chaos at two of the legs at once. She twirled through the air and went to one of the legs, creating a blade of Chaos energy with her arm. She sliced it hard into the leg and kept stabbing it, clinging onto the leg to try and disable it. The turret turned to the leg and started firing on it, trying to get Cyanide off. She jumped off but got hit with some of the bullets, causing her to skid on the ground. She brought up a Chaos shield and jumped away, firing an energy wave to the leg. Rusty used this as a distraction and fired off a powerful charged shot to the turret to successfully disable it.

Jaigon growled and slammed his hand on the panel. "Are you kidding me!? XANTOS! I need backup!" There was nothing but silenced on the other hand. "XANTOS! ANSWER ME!"

"Aww, what's the matter? All on your own?" Cy called to him mockingly, smirking. Infuriated, Jaigon turned towards the smart-ass hedgehog.

The giant stinger on the tip turned to lock onto Cyanide as she landed. Cyanide flinched, watching as it unleashed an energy bomb towards her. Rusty hesitated and tried to fire at the stinger but Dakoda had jumped right up with his Flambard and sliced through the beam. The discharge knocked the both of them onto the road but Dakoda grabbed Cyanide to protect her, rolling on the ground before they came to a stop. Dakoda helped Cyanide up and panted slightly.

"Are you alright?" asked Dakoda.

"Yes," Cy answered. "Thank you Dakoda. You saved my life."

Rusty watched, confused at first before going back into battle. Dakoda and Cyanide both rushed in and slashed into the second leg with their blades. They hacked away at it and Cyanide bashed into the legs to try and disable it. Dakoda eventually grabbed the leg and Rusty and Cy provided cover as Dakoda slashed the leg clean off. The scorpion mech stumbled slightly and Cy wrapped Chaos around one of the legs, yanking it down so the mech could fall straight down. Helada and Gemini regrouped with the others and looked to the mech and there was silence.

"...is it dead?" asked Rusty.

The cockpit twitched and launched out a sudden wave of electricity at the group that sliced through them, making them groan out in pain. A series of missilies launched out from the top of the cockpit and they each found their marks against the suits, knocking the Agents down.

"D-dirty move…" grumbled Cy, holding her ribs.

As they got up, they witnessed the frame of Jaigon's mech sit up and the legs suddenly ejected themselves out of the frame. Rockets on the bottom began to activate and move the mech up. Dakoda and Gemini ran suddenly and jumped onto the mech, holding onto the frame. Cyanide, Helada, and Rusty began unloading their energy based weapons against the frame, trying to slow it down or disable it while Dakoda and Gemini stabbed their weapons several times into the mech. The mech began spinning around out of control while it tried to remain stable. It began to fly upwards to try and escape and both Agents clung on for dear life. Dakoda moved over to the scorpion tail and grabbed the base, turning on the fire and trying to melt the base he had weakened the base, he looked to Gemini and grabbed the frame.

"Might wanna hold onto something!" yelled the wolf.

Dakoda grabbed the melted base and stabbed it stinger first right near the cockpit. Cyanide raised her hands and grabbed onto the bottom of the escaping mech, yanking it back and slamming it down onto the ground. Dakoda had grabbed Gemini and jumped off, landing on one of the trucks and rolling over, helping her up. The mech itself had crashed onto the ground, no longer working. The cockpit itself opened up and Jaigon tried crawling out but as met with a shot from Rusty's Shock Pistol. Rusty angrily hit him with two more shots before Cyanide stopped him.

"I think you made your point." she said.

Dakoda walked over and pulled out his containment blaster, approaching cautiously while Gemini grabbed him and restrained him.

"It's over Jaigon. You're under arrest." said Dakoda.

Jaigon just growled, glaring a hole through the wolf. "You think it's going to be that easy all the time!? That's not the worst the Legion has in store for you! Next time, I'm gonna-"

"There won't be a next time." said Dakoda, aiming his blaster and suddenly pulling the trigger.

The blast targeted Jaigons chest and wrapped him in a containment field, digitizing him into a card that landed on the floor. Dakoda looked at the card that sat where Jaigon had stood, mocking them right to the end. For several seconds, neither he nor his team could quite comprehend what had just happened. Then, a shout was heard from the most unexpected of people: Gemini.

"WE DID IT!"

That was all she screamed out before freezing and covering her mouth when others turned to look at her in shock. It was only a few seconds later that Helada let out a triumphant cheer of his own, wordless but enthusiastic all the same, picking up his dear friend and hugging her tightly, laughing the entire time. THe joy was infectious, and soon all four of them (save Gemini, who refused to crack her facade again) we dancing about, cheering. The sounds of cheers filled the streets as the mechasuits fell away from their victims, freeing them, reuniting families and friends. Not too far from where AGP stood, a certain wolf happily let two children return to their now-free mother, who cried joyfully and thanked him again and again for protecting them from her. People everywhere began to dance and sing, and a different kind of chaos filled the streets; one of pure joy. They had been saved from the worst threat they had ever faced, thanks to Alpha Galaxy Patrol.

~!~!~!~

Jengas was thriving that night, the sounds of laughter, merry chatter, and a liberal splash of celebratory alcohol filling the bar. Gem sat near the karaoke floor, listening to Helada's soothing attempts at singing. Cyanide was engaged in a card game with Evan and Amin, and her chip pile was the largest of the three, only to grow larger as she laid down yet another full house. As she collected her winnings, Amin threw out an angry accusation of cheating and Evan laughed heartily, for once enjoying the company of people rather than programs. The place was packed full of folks who simply joked with each other and danced the night away.

And sitting in his customary place at the bar was Dakoda, flirting a little more heavily than usual with Bolt, who himself was enjoying the extra attention. The dingo was about to lean over and kiss him when he spotted someone approaching out of the corner of his eye. Smiling, he backed up a little.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. I think you need to talk to someone," he said, walking off to serve a couple of other patrons. Curious, Dakoda turned and saw Rusty take the seat next to him.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Boyfriend I'm guessing?"

"Sort of," Dakoda admitted. "More like extremely close friend." He looked at Rusty. "I doubt you came over here to ask me that, though."

"Shame. He seems like he's the type that wants more than what he already has." he said, taking his Badge out and placing it in front of Dakoda. "...I came to say I'm sorry."

"You said what?" Dakoda replied.

"...I misjudged you out there. That doesn't happen often. You put your life on the line to save Cy, something I wasn't ready to do." he looked to Dakoda. "...it isn't easy for me to admit I'm wrong when I know almost everything. Out there, fighting against that thing, I wasn't ready for that. I've talked such a tough game but when it came to actually fighting out there...maybe-"

Dakoda put a hand on his shoulder. "You aren't a fighter, not naturally. You're used to relying on your wits, so of course that wasn't easy for you."

"...and maybe it's something i'm not cut out for. I'm already suspended for two months because of the hacking I did in which, by the way, was of my own volition and not linked to XANTOS in anyway."

"Oh, I know," Dakoda assured him. "I never thought you were working for him. You're just used to doing what you want, when you want. But there is something that needs to be clear between us from now on Rusty." Dakoda put his drink down and spun in his chair so he was looking directly at the cat, his expression completely serious. "AGP is an organization that is about protecting those who cannot protect themselves. We are about looking out for others over ourselves, and we have a chain of command that must be heeded. You are welcome to remain our Orange Agent, but understand that by agreeing to do so, you agree to adhere to our rules, and not just your own anymore. You can't be that cocky cat that does whatever the hell he feels like doing anymore. You have to accept that you will have responsibilities that you must fulfill. Do you understand that?"

Rusty looked into his eyes, that same vacant expression but this time he nodded, leaning back in his seat. "...you're gonna need all the help you can get against this new Legion, huh?"

"That goes without saying," Dakoda admitted.

The black cat looked back to the others, noticing how happy they were and how they were celebrating. "I've always said that in this line of work the only person you can trust is yourself. I'll play by your rules but I won't have my own rules disregarded. I need some time to think. So I want you to hold onto that for me."

Dakoda watched Rusty get up off the seat and fixing his jacket. "Don't go vanishing on us."

"I don't plan on it. You'll know where to find me."

The wolf nodded, watching Rusty leave Jenga's. He looked down slightly and sighed quietly before returning his gaze up to see Cyanide, Helada, and Gemini celebrating and raise their glasses up. Dakoda smiled and took his own drink, going over to them and raising up his own drink. It would take awhile but their team would remain strong, no matter who would get into their way.


End file.
